Heroine
by elitemassacre6
Summary: Feeling emotionally exhausted and even more alone than usual, Santana finally decides that ending her life is the right thing to do. Takes place while the club is in New York for Nationals.
1. Chapter 1

She wanted to sit down to watch the people below her amble about, just as drunk as her but far more jovial than she felt she'd ever be again. But as intoxicated as she was, Santana doubted she'd fall forwards as she'd wish. She was far more likely to fall backwards and crack her skull on the concrete only two feet below the ledge she was sitting on instead of thirty stories below as she wished.

So instead she stood, just sober enough to stand still and watch those same people dissapear from view and new people walk below her. Some of them disappearing into the hotel she was standing on the roof on, lips locked together and moans escaping their throats. Or, so she assumed, she was too high above street level to hear. She stepped down from the edge to pour herself another glass of beer, setting her nose over the rim of the glass to smell the heavy grapefruit and pine scents it presented to it's drinkers.

She'd learned a long time ago not to be picky with her beer. She was a teenager after all, and most of the parties she'd needed to go to as a Cheerio had featured the worst kind of macro brews available. But she was about to jump off of the ledge in front of her and swallowing down what she equated to horse piss in her last night alive seemed like a disservice. So Stone's Double Bastard it was.

It was bitter as all hell, yes. And oh so aggressive with it's flavors, but she appreciated that about it. And Puck had been happy to supply her with two bomber bottles of it and a quarter of the best sativa in Manhattan. Or so he said. It was good though. _Damn_ good, miles ahead of what she'd thought was fucking amazing back in Ohio.

So she was high and drunk, back to standing on the edge of a ledge of the hotel they were staying in in New York, watching the people, cabs, and regular cars (few and far between) on the street below. She already decided that she'd die tonight, and nothing and no one would stop that. There were plenty of reasons why, none that she wanted to burden herself thinking about. As she drank down the last of her beer she set set the glass on the edge and stood back up, breathing deep and closing her eyes. She wasn't quite ready yet but her impeccable balance would guarantee she'd stay standing where she was.

Though Santana had promised herself she wouldn't delve into the obvious train wreck of how the people she loved would react when they realized that she was dead, she was already thinking about it. Her mother was barely ever home. Always somewhere else. Seattle, Hong Kong, Dubai, St. Petersburg, Rio. It wasn't exactly that they didn't speak often. In fact her mother had made a promise that they'd talk every other day if not every day. No matter where she was they spoke to each other.

Santana's problem with this was that she hadn't been in her mother's physical presence since Christmas. And she needed that closeness to someone, her Mami especially. She couldn't help but wonder if she'd still be doing this tonight if her mother was there to wrap her arms around her and tell her that everything _would_ be alright. That she'd make it so. She couldn't fix this though. She wasn't there to wrap her arms around her daughter and make her feel as protected as she ever had.

Now that she thought about it, Santana wondered if her Mami had managed to get a flight to New York. She'd asked her to try and make it to Nationals if she could. To see her perform as she hadn't in a long time. And then it was only Cheerios. But now it was music, which she loved more than she'd ever liked cheering. Climbing down off of the ledge, she pulled out her wallet from her jeans, pulling out one of the last four joints she had. She lit it and set it to her lips, inhaling once the excess paper had burned away.

It was slow burning and sticky so she'd rolled it hollow and that worked perfectly. It tasted like a mango peach smoothie, and god knew she was all about that, so Puck couldn't have picked a better strain for her under the circumstances. She still didn't know how the hell he'd managed to find someone to buy such good shit from in such a short time, but it didn't really matter. What did matter was finishing this joint and getting back up on her ledge and then falling off of it. She hoped there'd be no one beneath her. She didn't want to hurt or kill someone else while trying to kill herself.

Halfway done with the joint in her hand, Santana climbed back up, blowing rings inside of each other once she was steady. She kind of wished she had another beer. Not the same one though. It was a pretty serious palate wrecker, but maybe an imperial stout or something would be opposite enough to be tasted. She was thinking about that, and which she might like, when the door thirty or so feet behind her opened and someone stepped out. She didn't bother turning around or coming down from the ledge. She didn't give half a shit about some stranger seeing her up there.

"Santana!" She heard. In a voice she knew immediately. She scoffed. Of course. Of fucking course it had to be Rachel to find her before she could jump. It couldn't have been someone else? Anyone else? As much as she'd claimed to hate the tiny ball of loud mouthness and enthusiasm, she loved her just as much as she loved everyone else in that club she'd spent so long calling stupid.

She wasn't sure what kind of impact seeing this would have on Berry and her future in the city. She didn't want to ruin anything for her, or fuck her head up or whatever.

"Please come down from there, Santana! You appear intoxicated and you might fall."

"That's the point, Tiny." The look on Rachel's face went from afraid to terrified in exactly one second and Santana knew she got the idea.

"No! Please...come down. We...we can talk about music and I'll even smoke one of those horrible things in your hand with you despite the effect it'll have on my lungs for tomorrow if you just come down and talk with me." Santana couldn't help but laugh. Rachel smoking a joint? She'd have paid to see that a month ago. Maybe she'd pay a little bit of time to see it now.

"Fine. But when they're gone, so am I. Deal?" Santana asked, stepping down from the ledge and tossing what was left of her last joint to the side. The little brunette in front of her nodded tightly, her fists held tightly at her sides.

"Deal, Santana. Now you'll have to...have to show me how to light them. I've never done anything like this. And I doubt it'll do the wonderful things to my voice it does to yours." Rachel said, walking closer towards Santana as the Latina pulled one of her three leftover joints from her pocket and stuck one between her lips before flicking her light on and running it over the paper just to make sure it was dry. When she was satisfied she lit the end, inhaling shortly to make sure the cherry was hot and even before she put the lighter away, taking a deep breath in and pushing out smoke when she exhaled.

"Pretty simple, Berry. Put it to your lips, inhale the smoke, exhale. You're gonna cough but that's fine. Don't go to crazy, alright? I've got water and shit so even if you do you'll be fine." She inhaled twice more before handing the joint to Rachel who took it gingerly between her thumb and index finger and put it to her lips and drew in for a few seconds before she blew out smoke, coughing, but not harshly, before she passed it back to Santana who was laughing.

"Pretty good for your first toke, Berry. I could teach you...or I mean I guess Puck could teach you some cool tricks if you ever decide you want to do it again." Santana said, once again inhaling the sweet, tangy smoke a few times, french inhaling and blowing rings and such just to have fun.

"I'll have you know I have no intention of ever doing this again, Santana. Especially not since you seem set on killing yourself tonight. If anything it'll be something special between you and I. If I can't change your mind that is." Santana shrugged, watching as Rachel tried to blow rings and failed. She let the other girl finish off the joint, pulling the next one from her wallet.

"You can't. And I don't want to talk about why. I'd think it was pretty fucking obvious, Rachel. Can we not talk about it at all? I'm actually finding it pretty cool to chill with you, but I'm going to die tonight and there's nothing you can do to stop me or talk me out of it. Here, light it, you saw me do it before, I know you're a quick learner." Rachel looked dejected but still just as determined and Santana rolled her eyes, taking the joint that was down to the crutch from Berry and tossing it away before slipping the unlit one between her lips. She watched as Rachel replicated her lighting technique exactly, impressed.

"Well, if you'd reconsider, Santana, we could 'chill' together all the time." Santana's brow furrowed above her dark eyes and she bit into her lip. She knew what the other brunette was suggesting, but didn't exactly believe it. As much as she'd made it known that she hated Rachel, (which she didn't) Berry had made it known that she didn't appreciate her humor or her admittedly often lazy, uninterested presence around her.

"You're saying you want to be friends. With me. I'm thinking you're trying to bullshit the bullshitter Berry. For example, just guessing here. You say we're friends, I need one and you know that. So I don't jump off of this ledge here and think I'm going to have someone I can depend on, and have someone that can depend on me, only for you to tell me that you only said it so I wouldn't kill myself? Is that about right?" Santana said, pulling out her last joint and sticking it between her lips. She was high as fucking hell, certainly, but she wanted this to be over with for fucks sake. Besides, Rachel looked angry and she hadn't even passed yet.

"How does that make any sense Santana? You'd only find yourself back up on this roof or some other tomorrow night. No, I'm sincere in my offer. I want to be your friend, and I don't want you to die. So please, don't." Rachel said, appearing sincere, her eyes large and pleading as she exhaled. Santana could admit there was something sexy about Berry smoking. And only with her, which was even better.

"I need to. You don't understand. I'm alone, and as much as you think you and everyone else hates me I hate myself more. I just need to be done, and I'm so fucking tired. I just want some god damned rest and I'll never get it." Rachel tossed out her joint and Santana took the last few draws of her before she tossed hers too, moving to climb back on top of her ledge.

"I don't hate you, Santana. Have I ever said that? Please come down. Talk to me."

"I did talk to you. Deal was when the joints were gone then I would be too." She said, turning to face Rachel, unafraid of the possibility of her falling backwards off of the building.

"Well...maybe...maybe if you're going to jump then I will too!" Rachel declared, walking closer but being cognizant enough to not touch Santana. The laugh that fell from full lips had her stomping her right foot, which was freaking adorable.

"Berry you'd never do that. You love yourself in all the right ways and you're destined for more than anyone else I've ever known. You deserve to see your dreams come true. Look where we are! This is your city. Your home. You can't die now. There are a million little girl's who will need to hear your voice and your story so they can believe in themselves just like you needed Barbra. You know that. So just...just let me go. Please, Rachel." Santana turned back to look at the street below again.

"I can't, Santana." The Latina shrugged.

"Then I'm sorry, Rachel. Goodbye." By the time she'd finished speaking the tiny brunette was standing at her ledge reaching out to pull her in, but Santana was already falling, waving her hand up at Rachel as time seemed to speed back up. She closed her eyes, wondering if the impact would hurt or whether it would just kill her instantly. Suddenly, however, she made impact with something soft but firm, and she was no long falling. She felt like she was floating, but the wind was whipping through her hair. She didn't dare open her eyes, and seconds later she was standing on solid ground again. There were soft, small, hands on her face, thumbs caressing her cheeks and then those hands were behind her pulling her into a hug.

"You're okay. I got to you, thank god." She heard, the voice forcing her to open her eyes. She was confused as fuck and her brain leapt to ridiculous conclusions as she looked at Rachel in front of her, usually tidy mahogany hair wild and wind swept. She opened her mouth to speak, to demand answers, but it just hung open, so she closed it and tried again.

"I know this is...confusing and probably frightening, but I couldn't let you die, Santana, no matter the risks.

"Rachel!" both girls heard, turning towards the door that led down the stairs, Santana's eye's widening as her mother walked through it.

"Maribel...look, I know I'm not supposed to fly in public but she tried to jump, I had to save her!" Rachel said, moving from in front of Santana so her mother could see her.

"Mija? You tried to commit suicide?" She walked closer, taking her daughter's face in her hands.

"Yes."

"Why, baby? I don't understand why you'd want to do that." Maribel asked, shooting a look at Rachel that Santana didn't understand.

"A million reasons. I'm pretty sure you know all of them, Mami. It's simple."

"We'll talk about this in a few minutes, Mija. We have to go right now so I can make sure no one saw that." Santana watched Rachel pull what looked almost like a phone or tablet but seemed to just be a piece of glass, tapping at it's screen for a second before putting it away.

"Ten seconds, Maribel." The older woman nodded, pulling the two girls back over towards to the ledge for a reason Santana wasn't sure of. When her mother looked down at the mess Santana had left she raised her right brow, frowning.

"Really, Mija?" Santana shrugged, turning her head away.

"We'll talk about that later. Follow me." Santana nodded, and watched as the dust on the ground seemed to be pushed out of place as if a helicopter was landing on the roof. Suddenly out of nowhere, a door irised open where previously there had been air and Rachel walked forward, dissapearing inside. Maribel tugged her daughter behind her until they were inside what did appear to be a military helicopter or something, just invisible to the outside.

"Okay, what the fuck? What is this thing?"

"It's a next generation Osprey prototype. My father designed them. Take a seat and strap in. The ride is no where near as rough as a traditional helicopter but it's not exactly comfortable on your first ride." Santana obeyed, taking a seat along the far wall and strapping in to the five point harness.

"Are either of you going to tell me what's up with all this spy bullshit?" Santana asked, her mother motioning her head to Rachel while she walked away up into what had to be the cockpit.

"Not a spy. An agent."

"Of what? And don't bullshit me with some letter agency garbage. They don't have cloak tech. Or so says Britt. Last time I actually sat down and talked to her at least. That was months ago..." Rachel frowned, laying a soft hand on the Latina's knee from the seat next to her as the craft lifted off silently.

"No, they don't. And that's not what this is."

"Uh huh. So what it is then?"

"Shield."


	2. Chapter 2

"Shield? Is that like some new agency no one knows about?"

"It isn't new specifically, no. And some people know about it due to specific circumstances. Do you recall hearing about Iron Man and Thor more recently? And have you maybe read the stories about Captain America?"

"Everyone knows about Captain America. And Stark too for that matter. Thor? Is that to do with all that crazy shit that went down in Arizona?" Santana turned, unclipping her straps and folding her legs under her to focus her attention on Rachel.

"It is, yes. Shield is...is an organization that is determined to protect earth from threats like what happened in Arizona. Among other things that aren't important right now. Your mother is an Agent of Shield, as are both of my fathers."

"And you? What the hell are you? I know you fucking flew to grab me Rachel."

"I...am a different matter all together. Though that comes from my mother. I can fly, yes, among other things. But that isn't important. We'll be landing in a few seconds. Stay close to your mother and I and try to be less hostile than you tend to be when uncomfortable or confused. The agents you'll meet when we get inside will not think twice about calming you down with much less...kind methods than I would use."

"Meaning what? They'll taser me?"

"Essentially, yes. Ah, we're here." Rachel said, standing as Maribel left the cockpit, walking over to stand near the door that once again irised open. Rachel followed, and Santana behind her as they left the aircraft and walked out into what was very clearly a hangar or flight bay of sorts. An agent in fatigues and a shirt with a patch on it's shoulder that Santana seemed to remember seeing before stepped in front of her with one of those glass tablets, putting it up in front of her eyes.

"Blink for me please, and state your name." He asked succinctly. Santana obeyed.

"Santana Diabla Isabella Lopez." She said. He nodded, motioning for her to press her hand against the device. She did, and it read her hand print, a picture of her and her name coming up next to it. He handed her a digital tag and she clipped it to her shirt.

"We'll stop at the infirmary first. Have them detox you both." Maribel said, nodding at people who gave her curt nods of greeting as she passed.

"Sounds like quite a good idea. As little as it affects me, I'm not sure I appreciate the effects of cannabis." Rachel said, following behind Santana's mother as they made their way towards a clear walled room with a few different people in white lab coats walking around.

"I'd hope not, baby girl." A tall black man said, the name Dr. Leroy Berry on his own digital name tag.

"Daddy! Hi! How are you? I didn't know you were here." The man just smiled and pulled her into his arms for a quick hug.

"Didn't want to miss your performance tomorrow. Your dad's in the engineering lab too." The man, who was apparently Rachel's father, or at least one of them, smiled over at Maribel, motioning over towards Santana.

"So this must be your girl, Maribel."

"She is indeed, Leroy. Needs a detox. Yours too." Her mother said, taking her own tablet out of her jacket when it made a pinging sound.

"Hill?" Leroy asked, already pressing some device to Rachel's arm.

"Coulson downstairs. I've got to go. Santanita, Rachel will take you to where you'll sleep for the night and I already talked to Mr. Shuester so don't worry about that. I'll see you in the morning." Her mother said, pressing a kiss to her head and pushing her hair away from her face before smiling at her and walking away, a finger pressed against her ear.

"Lopez Here."

"Let me see your arm, Santana." Leroy asked, rolling her sleeve up and pressing that same device against her arm. She did so and when he pressed a button there was a tap against her arm from the device and then he pulled it away.

"There we go. So we'll have to urinate a bit more often than usual tonight but it'll clean the intoxicants out of our systems." Rachel said, taking Santana's hand to begin to lead her towards the elevator.

"See you tomorrow, Daddy!"

"Goodnight, sweetheart." Rachel led her towards the elevator, swiped her name tag on a reader by the buttons and hit one that said S34. The ride down from where Santana guessed they were on Sub Level 1 was far quicker than it should have been, Rachel motioning her out into what appeared to be a regular hallway. They turned left immediately and walked down until Rachel swiped Santana's tag on door number 16.

"So this is where you'll sleep tonight. I'll come get you in the morning and we'll get a ride with our parents back to the hotel to perform. After that we can sit down and talk about everything, okay?"

"Is there anything I can change into?" Santana asked? A bit too tired to worry about the ridiculous amount of crazy that had been happening to her tonight. Rachel walked in with her, walking to a wall that had built in drawers and pulling one open.

"Oh, yes, sorry, in these drawers there should be everything you need. Through this door here is the bathroom, so you can shower if you want. Need anything else?"

"No, Rachel. That's fine. Thanks." The tiny brunette just smiled at her, stepped closer, and hugged her, rubbing a small hand in circles on her back. Santana breathed deep, wrapping her around Rachel as well.

'You're welcome. Goodnight." She watched her disappear before she pulled her clothes off and changed into the sweats that had the shield emblem on the chest and crawled into the comfortable bed in the middle of the furthest wall. This had probably been...definitely had been the craziest night of her life. And now with her mother around and Rachel promising to be the friend she so desperately needed, Santana wasn't sure she wanted to die so desperately anymore. There were things to live for. Like the millions of questions she had. Like who was Rachel, really? And how long had her Mami been working for Shield? What did she actually do? And most importantly, what did all of this have to do with the father she'd never met?

She'd been told that he died doing the same job as her mother. Died saving her mother in fact. So he was a Shield agent too? And how did he die really? She thought about it as she fell asleep, also wondering how much of a coincidence it was that both her mother and Rachel's dads were shield agents. Not to mention the fact that Rachel had obviously known her mother. Had called her Maribel, not Agent Lopez.

By the time she'd woken up that morning, had her shower, and got dressed in fresh regular clothes that weren't the ones she'd been in the night before, Santana had been to the bathroom to pee right around fifteen times. It kept her from sleeping peacefully, but she couldn't blame it completely on that. She'd been so busy thinking about everything that she wasn't getting very much sleep anyway. The upside to all of this being that she had no hangover to speak of. Which was admittedly really fucking amazing. It was six a.m. Or so said the alarm clock to her left. And she was busy reading over the contract that had been left in digital glass-like tablet form on her bedside table.

It was a non disclosure agreement that require her finger print and voice recognition as signature and she signed it, setting the tablet to the side, her fingers sliding along it's back, which caused it to do something she certainly wasn't expecting. It seemed to fold in on itself, becoming what seemed to be a regular phone with her name monogrammed on the back. She picked it up and slid it in her pocket, standing when there was a knock on her door before Rachel opened it, sticking her head in.

"Hey, good morning. Breakfast?"

"Yes, please. I'm starving." Rachel smiled at her, extended her hand out, and nodded her head towards the hallway. Santana walked forward, putting her hand into Rachel's.

"So how did you sleep? Aside from having to wake up and urinate ever half hour I mean."

"Not great. I have way to many questions to sleep on. About my dad, about how it is that Lima manages to have three, formally four Shield agents living there. About how long you've known my mom and how you know her...a million other things."

"Well I can answer two of those questions. There are more than three shield agents living in Lima, and they're there because there's a base near by. Not all of their children know what they do however. My circumstances are special, as you know. As are yours honestly. And I've known your mother since I was eight. I came into my powers one day and I accidentally hurt my dads. I ran away into the forest a few miles behind my house and it was your mother who came to find me, bring me in, and add me to the index."

Santana paused, eyes closing, going over her memory. Hadn't she seen that word before? Grey folder, shield symbol, picture of a little boy, name Nathan Travis. The word INDEX large and in bold font. Ionic Electric...something. That's where the relevant part of the memory seemed to cut off. She remembered hearing her mother's footsteps and abandoning the file.

"Santana? Santana!" There were hands on her cheeks. She opened her eyes, the scene playing in front of her eyes fading away.

"Rachel? Where...what happened?" The tin singer looked into her eyes, staring as deeply as anyone ever had before turning around and pulling her quickly towards the elevator.

"We need to go see your mother right now." Rachel swiped her name tag and pressed the S42 button, her hand wrapped gently but very firmly around Santana's. In her other hand,one of those tablet things in phone size. She tapped her thumb against it a few times, then her ear.

"Yes, Maribel. Meet me in the lab. No. Not me. She's...fine physically. We'll see you in few minutes. Goodbye." Rachel pulled her out of the elevator when they reached their floor, and Santana looked around as they passed two glass walled labs on either side, little robot drones the size of water bottles floating around in one room and a scan of what looked to be a robotic arm on a large screen in the other. A few seconds later Rachel was pulling her into another lab, this one much larger than the rest and it's glass walls blacked out.

"Daddy?" Leroy walked around a wall of steel cabinets, tablet in his hand as he tapped on it's screen. He furrowed his brow when he saw them.

"Rachel why is she here? She doesn't have clearance and you know that."

"I need you to run a scan on her. Right now. Maribel should be here in a minute."

"She's been scanned before, there's nothing-"

"There is. Santana, will you please go stand in that yellow circle for me? I know this is all probably a little frightening, I did kind of drag you down here with no explanation, but you're safe here, okay? Trust me?" Santana just nodded, going to stand in an area where a yellow circle had been marked out.

"Okay."

"Santana, a machine is about to come down around you, but you'll be able to breath just fine. Are you claustrophobic at all?"

"Uh, no, not at all." Leroy nodded, pressing at his tablet before walking over to the desk next to where the Latina was standing, typing in something before said machine came down around her, cutting her off from where the two Berrys were standing. Bright bluish white light shined in her face for a few seconds, so she closed her eyes. It was at least a minute before the machine receded back into the ceiling, freeing her.

"Mierda. When the hell did this happen?" She heard her mother's voice and opened her eyes, turning to see her standing there with a man in a blue suit, hands clasps in front of him. His name tag read Agent Phil Coulson.

"Must have been relatively recently. When was her last scan? Nine months ago?"

"Yes. Strange though. What brought it out? Rachel?"

"I was telling her how I met Agent Lopez and she essentially dissapeared into her own head. Her eyes closed, but they appeared to be moving relatively fast under her eyelids. R.E.M. Fast. When she opened them they appeared to be...different somehow. Brighter perhaps. Not in iris color but her whole eye. I brought her here immediately.

"Very good decision, Rachel."

"Thank you Agent Coulson. May I ask what the scan found, daddy?" Leroy nodded, flipping over a screen that it appeared he'd been writing calculations on to reveal another that held her scan. Areas in her brain that Santana knew shouldn't be so active seemed to be glowing, including and especially behind her eyes.

"Can you tell us what you were thinking about, Santana?" Coulson asked with a sincere smile. She liked him.

"Rachel said something about my Mom bringing her in after her powers were activated, about being put on the index. I was sure I'd seen the word somewhere before so I closed my eyes for some reason and the entire memory played out in front of me. It was the file of Nathan Riley. His powers were ionic and electric manipulation, his home address was 253 Vert Drive Dublin, Ireland. Parents David Riley Lara Riley. Mother suspected genetic-"

"Okay, Santana thank you. And when was this, do you remember?"

"I was nine. August 15, 2003." Everyone in the room locked eyes before they looked back at her. Coulson nodded.

"Lopez, Berry, with me. Rachel, you and Santana go have breakfast."

"Of course, Agent Coulson. Santana, come with me. I remember you said you were starving, right?" Rachel reached her hand back out for her and the Latina placed her own in it, following as Rachel lead them out of the door and back towards the elevator. Once they were inside and Rachel had pressed a button Santana sighed.

"So I'm going on the Index."

"To be honest you were sort of already on it. Or...more correctly you were being watched, they were always prepared to put you on it. Hence the scans. Every time you went to the doctors or went to have a physical they scanned you with a much more mobile version of the machine you were just inside of." Santana definitely didn't understand why that was, or why no one seemed to be so surprised that she'd suddenly gained an over active brain and an eidetic memory.

"Okay, but why?"

"That is a question that needs to be discussed with you mother, Santana. Not me."

"Give me something, here, Rachel. I'm confused as all hell."

"It's because you are your father's daughter. They always suspected that his genetic...abnormalities would be transferred to you. In cases like ours that usually happens during puberty for whatever reason but sometimes it can happen before, as in my case. Sometimes it can happen after, as in yours."

Santana nodded, following Rachel as she lead her to where they grabbed food trays. As they went through the line grabbing food, Santana's eyes went wider and wider. Rachel was packing food onto her tray like she'd never eat again. The Latina could barely understand how it even all fit on there. Either way she said nothing, sitting down and digging into her steak and eggs. Across from her Rachel had a mountain of pancakes, what looked like two whole packages of fake looking bacon, and a salad bowl full of what Santana guess was scrambled vegan egg substitute.

"Rachel what the fuck. No way you're going to eat all of that." Santana said, watching at Rachel finished her first stack of five pancakes and reached for her bacon and eggs, eating huge amounts of both before she grabbed more pancakes.

"Oh, I fully intend to. It may seem strange, but this is the amount of food I need to keep my energy up until lunch. My metabolism requires it." Rachel said, Santana just now finishing her eggs and just now digging in to her steak.

"Yeah, you're right that makes sense if you can do other shit besides flying, which i'm assuming you can. We should finish eating. Shue expected everyone in the meeting room at seven thirty this morning. It's already six forty five now."

"It's no huge rush, Santana. The aircraft we were in last night is quite fast. We could leave at seven twenty eight and be in the room before everyone else."

"Okay. So, hey, that Coulson guy, he like, the boss around here or something?" Santana asked, finally finishing her food at the same time Rachel did. Which made zero sense.

"Here, technically yes. Is he the director of Shield? No." Santana nodded, standing up when Rachel did to toss their trays. They walked back to the elevator, walking in just as another group of agents did, all of them exiting in the hangar bay area that was sub level one.

Rachel lead them towards the same area they'd exited the Osprey from yesterday, all three of their parents along with Agent Coulson standing there.

"Before you girls go, Santana, I need activate your tag." He said, pulling a device that resembled a very small flashlight and running it over the area just beneath the crook of the Latina's elbow. It made a pinging sound and he retracted it, sliding it into his pocket. He held out his hand and she tilted her head, looking into his eyes before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her old phone. She placed it in his hand and he grinned, nodding.

"Did you read that from me or was it obvious?"

"It was obvious after about a second. And although I didn't know I could read anyone like that, I just realized I could. But I looked at you and realized I shouldn't. Rachel says you're essentially in charge of this base. Which means you're a high leveled 'government' official. Everything about that tells me I neither want to nor should read your mind, Agent Coulson."

"You're very intelligent, Santana Lopez." He said, smiling easily. As much as she'd always had the idea in her head that you could never trust men like him, Santana liked him for some reason, so she smiled back.

"Thank you?" He shrugged and walked away waving his hand. It gave Santana a chance to take a look at Rachel's other father. A far shorter man than his husband with kind hazel eyes and a clean shaven face.

"Let's go then. As Santana pointed out, the two of us do have a meeting to attend to in twenty minutes." Rachel said, climbing onto the osprey. Though she would have called it something else entirely. She remembered very clearly reading about or seeing ospreys on TV. The plane/copter, not the bird. And this thing was far far more advanced. It was more a futuristic vtol jet with two rotating props than anything else. She took a seat next to Rachel and strapped herself in, watching as Rachel's father's did the same on the other side. Her mother dissapeared up into the cockpit just like last time before reappearing into the cabin. They took off seconds later.

"This thing is pretty freaking awesome Mr. Berry. You really designed this?" Hiram nodded, looking around the inside of the cabin with a smile.

"Yes. The traditional Osprey craft were amazing for their time, and in certain, traditional military deployment roles till are. But we needed something more varied in it's approach. Not to mention the obvious need for the cloaking tech. So yes, I designed it and built the prototype. I'm an engineer, if Rachel hasn't already told you."

"That has got to be the coolest job, right? Not only seeing but being on the cutting edge of modern technology in so many fields. I mean obviously in different ways the cloaking tech not only fits this application but others. Suits for field agents, potential for cloaked orbital defense satellites, observation stations invisible to the enemies eye..." She went on. Not completely cognizant of the fact that she was letting her inner tech geek out to play. It was why Iron Man was so fucking cool in her book. That and other things. His attitude being one of them. She could always appreciate attitude.

"I think perhaps Agent Coulson was very right. You are very very intelligent. How long have you been interested in technology and engineering?" Hiram asked as they all felt the Osprey 2.0 (what Santana was calling it in her head) set down on what she was sure was the same roof she'd been about to throw herself off of the night before.

"Forever really. I used to find old books on world war II tech on this bookshelf right outside my mom's office. Then when I got taller I could reach higher and there was stuff on modern jet engines, on VTOL stuff, on modern robotics tech and so on. Then I just started reading and buying books online." Her mother raised an eyebrow at her, a small smile on her lips as she rolled her eyes.

"Just like your Papi, I swear." Maribel said as they all stepped out of the aircraft, heading towards the door and then down the stairs.

"Really? I never...I mean you haven't ever really talked about him a lot. Though now I guess I understand why."

"You really are quite a lot like him. You look quite a lot like him as well. Victor was always excited to talk about old technology and new technology alike. I very much admired that about him. And I swear those books were the only type he read. When we were in the academy together the entire side of his room would be covered in books waist high." Hiram said, walking past his husband as they reached the main floor and the taller man held open the door for all of them. Rachel seemed to know where the meeting room was so everyone followed her.

When they got there only Ms. Pillsbury was there, two boxes of donuts on the table in front of her and one bag with the name of the bakery on it. Santana guess it was hers. She'd never be able to handle a communal box of donuts in which everyone inevitably got horrible germs all over them.

"Oh, hello, good morning. Rachel, these donuts here are for you, they're vegan." The smile on the tiny brunette's face made one curve Santana's lips as well.

"Thank you Ms. Pillsbury! Oh, I'm sorry. These are my fathers Drs Leroy and Hiram Berry." Both men nodded. They'd obviously been warned to not try and touch her. She nodded thankfully. Rachel reached for her box of donuts opening it as her smile widened. Santana opened the other box, trying to decide what she wanted. Then she looked into Rachel's, reaching for one, only to get her hand slapped away.

"Yeah, this is my mom Maribel Lopez. Ugh, share, Rach!" She huffed, grinning when Rachel rolled her eyes and handed over the donut that'd been iced in something bright pink. She took a huge bite, moaning and closing her eyes.

"Don't be rude, Mija. You can say please. Hi yes, I'm this one's mother. I apologize."

"Hey! I'm not that bad. Thank you for the donut, Rachel."

"You really are, Santana. Sit down, we should go over the set list between us before everyone arrives.

"It's very nice to meet the three of you. I'm glad you came to see the club's performances. Will should be down with the rest of them in a few moments. We just got back from getting donuts. This city is far more dirty than I thought it would be. And people are so rude. They just bump right into you!" She said, sitting down with the other three adults in the room.

"So what's up? Problem with our set list?" Santana asked, watching as Rachel finished off her second donut.

"No. Not exactly the entire set list. Just the duet..." Santana caught her eyes again, watching as Rachel lips twisted into a frown.

"You don't want to sing with Finn. Look, I get that. Like Jesus Christ, believe me I do. But we have literally no time to come up with a new number with a new duet partner for you. So as much as I hate to say it you're going to have to suck it up and push through he awkward."

"I suppose so. It's just really uncomfortable not to mention frustrating. How immature is he to finally decide he wants me back after I've been trying to tell him we belong together nearly all year?"

"If by immature you mean textbook Finn Hudson then very very immature. Oh look, speak of the devil. It's mister pastry cream nips himself." Santana said, laughing at her own joke as she motioned with her eyes for Britt to sit next to Rachel so that Finn wouldn't. Britt nodded and did so, Artie moving the other chair to roll up next to her. Quinn sat next to Santana, short hair flopping with the motion. It looked great but Santana could tell without invading her friend's mind that it hadn't helped as much as she thought it would. She nudged her with her shoulder and stood to grab the maple bar she'd seen in the donut box, handing it to Quinn.

"Thanks, San."

"No prob Q. You know I wouldn't let anyone steal your maple bar. I've got your back. How are you? I mean like...I know the hair thing isn't some magical emotional fix but are you mostly okay?" The blonde nodded, wrapping her arm behind Santana in the space behind her back and the chair and laying her head on the brunette's shoulder.

"I'm okay. You? I couldn't find you last night and then Puck said something about getting you beer and bud and I got kind of worried." Santana slipped her left hand into the choppy blonde locks, massaging Quinn's scalp the way she knew her Captain loved.

"I'm peachy, honestly. Rachel found me and talked me down." Okay, so, shit. She hadn't meant to say that at all. The comfortable weight on her shoulder dissapeared and Quinn gently grabbed her cheeks, looking into her eyes, wetness clearly welling up in her eyes.

"Talked you down? From a _ledge_ , Santana?" The Latina bit her lip and nodded, feeling a little bit better when Rachel slipped her her hand into Santana's free one.

"Yeah. Sorry Q. I would have come to get you but I knew you were feeling all beat up inside and I didn't want to make it any worse for you than I knew it would be when you found out I'd thrown myself off the fucking roof." She whispered. The last thing she wanted was for Brittany to hear this conversation. But that seemed to be covered, Rachel was talking to her and Artie.

"Don't you ever ever think about doing that without talking to me again, S. Ever! Do you understand? I swear to god, you idiot." Santana nodded, wrapping her free arm around her best friend before wiping the few tears that'd fallen from hazel eyes and pulling back to see the whole group finally quieting down. She wiped her own tears then squeezed Rachel's hand before she let go.

"Alright, everyone. I'm glad you liked the donuts but let's get down to business. In case you'd forgotten we have right around three and a half hours before we need to be at the convention center to do final check in. We perform fifth and then we're done for the day until they post results. If we make in the top ten we get to perform again the day after tomorrow. If we get into the top three for that then we have the final performance two days later. I need you all to be on point with your singing and with your choreography. I know how much we all want to win this and I believe in all of you. We can do this. Even if we don't win I'm so so proud of you. We're in New York at Nationals! We've come so far from last year. Alright. So you have two hours or so before we board the bus to go the convention center. If there's somewhere you'd like to go outside the hotel or within the two or three block are we're in let me or Ms. Pillsbury know and we'll see about it, okay? Alright, has everybody already eaten breakfast?" Everyone but Rachel and Santana shook their heads.

"Alright then, the hotel has a really good breakfast for guest set up in the lobby, go ahead an eat. Meet us in the lobby at ten." Shue said, stopping to talk to Hiram while everyone else made to leave the room.

"Rach, seriously where are you going?"

"Breakfast?" Santana just shook her head, shrugging and following behind her and Quinn who had apparently smelled the bacon that was on the menu.

"You're ridiculous. Don't you ever get full?" The Latina asked, figuring she could do with a glass of orange juice.

"Not really I've never tried. Usually I just feel not so ravenously hungry anymore and that's when I stop eating."

"Right. Of course. But how do you know they'll have anything you can eat?" By the time the two of them caught up to the group everyone was just sitting down. Santana saw they had cranberry juice and had a glass of that instead.

"Most hotel's have soy or almond milk these days. I'll just have a few bowls of cereal." Santana waiting until Rachel filled her bowl with cereal, motioning for her to sit next to Quinn while she sat on the star's other side. She had totally noticed Finn sitting at a table away from the group making stupid hopeful eyes at Rachel but if the brunette wanted nothing to do with him right now she had no problem helping.

"Hey, Q. Wanna go find something to do for a while with Rachel and Me before we have to go? We can probably find one of those little vintage boutique shops you really like. And we won't have to bring Shue or Pillsbury. My mom won't mind us going alone."

"It's Rachel and I, Santana. I know you have better grammatical knowledge than that. I wouldn't be averse to doing that. I really like vintage dresses and such. Would you be okay with me tagging along Quinn?" Santana rolled her eyes at being corrected and stole a piece of Quinn's bacon, giggling when the blonde slapped her hand away when she tried for a second piece.

"Mine. And really, Rachel, it would be me tagging along. I'd love to go. Maybe we should ask Tina. She loves those dresses too."

"Sounds good to me. Yo, Tina. Wanna go check out some vintage shops with us?" Santana asked, watching as Rachel pulled out her phone to find a few shops.

"I'd love to yes. Thanks for inviting me."

"Oh! Me too San? They have to coolest hats ever!" Quinn rolled her eyes. Santana locking eyes with her. Brittany spoke loud enough that this would be a glee girl's outing in a few seconds.

"We might as well make it a group outing. Are you coming, Kurt?" Rachel asked, finally finishing her third bowl of cereal.

"Of course I want to come. I can't let you pick your own clothes, can I?" Kurt said with an uppity tone.

"Hey! Lay off of my girl, asshole. Rachel's clothes are fine. Want to be a dick about it then don't come. None of us need your bullshit attitude.

"The fuck?" Was all Mercedes said, obviously just as confused as Kurt looked at her defending Rachel at all, let alone her wardrobe. And yeah, it was hypocritical as all hell but Santana didn't give a shit.

"Since when do you care what anyone says to or about Rachel, especially concerning her hideous clothes?"

"Since last night, Hummel. Fuck off." Quinn's hand was on her wrist, eyes asking her to sit down. Rachel stood next to her, taking her hand in her own smaller one.

"It's okay, Santana. Calm down. His opinion doesn't matter."

"I'm having a hard time imagining what kind of train wreck situation could have happened last night to make you oh so suddenly decide you wanted to jump to Miss Berry's defense. I mean the two of you are sharing a room. I can only guess."

"My boy's right. This is sudden as all hell. What happened last night?"

"Look, Kurt's being a dick right now, I think we all agree on that, but I think we're all curious as fuck as to what happened too. Spill it." Santana wanted to ring all of their necks, wanted to walk away. Wanted to disappear. She shot her eyes over to Artie's.

"Hey, Britt, I think they sell skittles at the concession shop. Want to get a couple bags for later? I know you have to have your rainbow before a competition." The boy asked extending his hand to his girlfriend. The blonde looked upset at everyone attacked her best friend but seemed to understand that for some reason Santana didn't want her around to hear whatever negativity was about to come out of her mouth. She nodded and sat down in Artie's lap, letting him roll them off down a hallway.

Once she was gone Quinn turned murderous eyes on Kurt, Mercedes, and Puck.

"If either one of us has to tell you pieces of useless shit to fuck off one more time I'm going to start making a list of whose balls need crushing under my boots. Don't think I've left you out Mercedes. You should know that all it'll take for me to get tater tots removed from the lunch menu for next year is to turn in a favor with Coach. How much more nosy do you want to be?" Mercedes crossed her arms, rolled her eyes, and promptly got up and walked away.

"I'm not afraid of you Quinn Fabray. You're nothing but a washed up has been of an HBIC." Santana was literally seconds from flying over the large table to break that stupid nose of Kurt's when Rachel reached out and held her back.

"Kurt if I was you I wouldn't make the mistake of speaking to Quinn that way again." Rachel said, her tone tight and lips in a thin line.

"We're leaving. Come on, Q. Just gotta find me and Rachel's parents to tell them where we're going. You found some shops right, Rach?" Santana asked, just turning and walking away, ignoring the voices of most of the club calling for them to come back.

"I did yes, they're within six blocks. Although I do think we wasted quite a bit of time dealing with them. I think our parents are talking to Mr. Shue in the meeting room." The three girl's headed back that way, finding the five adults conversing over coffee.

"Dad, Daddy, Quinn, Santana, and I are going to a few vintage clothing shops. We'll be back in time to make the bus. I sent you the addresses and all three of us have our phones.

"Alright, sweetheart go ahead."

"Mija what happened?" Maribel asked seeing her daughter trying to calm down but her fists still clenched hard enough to be paling and wetness filling her eyes.

"Nothing, Mami. I'm fine. We'll be back soon enough." The older woman nodded and Santana turned around to leave the room with the other two girl's behind her. They left the hotel within a minute or so and were out on the street where she felt she could breath easier.

"Thank god for AC. It shouldn't be that hot outside. Seriously I didn't think the east coast got this hot. It's not even summer yet. Best idea ever to stop and get Italian ice on the way back, Rachel." Quinn said, lifting her shirt to fan air under it as the woman behind the counter scooped two scoops into her paper cup. She moaned quietly when she handed it to her with a spoon, immediately digging in.

"It's not even that hot, Q. You're always hot, it's weird."

"Why thank you for the compliment, Santana." The blonde said, too busy scooping icy goodness into her mouth to do anything else. Rachel smiled kindly and handed over exact change when the attended gave her her three scoops of raspberry.

"We should head back. We need to be on the bus in half an hour." The smaller brunette said holding open the door for first Santana and then Quinn.

"And you do realize the hotel is literally right across the street right?" Rachel nodded, shrugging.

"Maybe I'll move to Alaska. Like it's probably cold there all the time. And they have fresh Salmon and Crab and stuff right? It'll be perfect."

"Q what school would you even go to in Alaska. I don't even think there's anything but bears and glaciers there.

"I like bears and glaciers." Rachel rolled her eyes at the two of them going back and fourth but it felt good to just hang out with two people who she'd always desperately wanted as friends.

"Of course Q Bear likes bears." Santana said, poking the blonde in the side. Quinn just hummed her agreement. Minutes later they were walking into the hotel, finding an area in the lobby that held a couch they could relax on.

"We should consider going to get pizza afterwards. I know of a place with a wood fire oven that does both vegan and traditional if the two of you are interested. Regardless I think I'll ask Brittany. She loves pizza."

"That's definitely true. And I'm interested."

"As if you ever turn down pizza. It'd be the apocalypse if you did. Santana said, furrowing her brows over her eyes when a shadow descended over Rachel. She looked up to see Finn with that stupid awkward grin on his face.

"Um, hey Rach. I was looking for you earlier, I couldn't find you. Everyone else said something about you leaving the hotel?" Rachel looked frustrated already and Santana nudge Quinn who was looking at the idiot like she wished he'd spontaneously combust.

"You were sat less than five feet away when Kurt, Mercedes, and Noah made an activity of attacking Santana and I's friendship. I'm sure you heard us when we said we were going to go shopping, Finn."

"Well...I mean, yeah. But I just meant I wanted to hang out with you. The hotel pool has a hot tub and stuff." Neither Santana nor Quinn could keep in the laugh that escaped out of them. Both of them thinking of the last time Finn had been in a hot tub with a girl.

"Finn. I thought I made it clear. I don't want to hang out with you, or go on some kind of hot tub date with you. Not right now, and perhaps not at all. I'm not some...some toy you can pick up when you get bored with the only other one you have." He looked confused and that just had Santana rolling her eyes.

"I don't think you're a toy. I don't have toys anymore. I haven't had an action figure since I was like eight. I play video games now." Rachel scoffed and put her hand over her eyes, shaking her head.

"Finn..."

"What she means is that she doesn't want to be your girlfriend. Because you only seem to want her when she doesn't want you or when you don't want me."

"Among other reasons, that is correct, yes."

"But I thought...I mean like all year you were all over me. Singing to me and stuff."

"And don't you think it's telling that you only want me now that I've stopped doing that, Finn?"

"No, not really. I was dating Quinn."

"You were also dating her when you started pursuing me the last time. I'm not interested Finn. End of story." The tall boy's face scrunched up and he frowned before turning around and stomping off.

"For fuck's sake. God damned idiot." Santana said, finishing the last of her Italian ice and setting the cup down on the coffee table in front of her.

"Don't say that. Just because he isn't the most intelligent person doesn't mean it's okay to call him an idiot. You wouldn't be okay with someone talking about Brittany that way." Santana rolled her eyes, nodding her acquiescence.

"Fine, you're right. Come on, we should put these bags in the room before we have to go." All three girl's headed to the elevator, Santana sighing as they finally got off on their floor and cross the hallway to open their door gasping as she saw it. Everything was tossed around, luggage bags thrown open and their contents across the floors. A cart that held soaps and such along with cleaning supplies sat in the middle of the room but they couldn't hear anything. Santana quietly walked backwards out of the room, motioning for both girls to do the same. She closed her eyes for a second then opened them and looked at Rachel.

"Bathroom." She whispered, watching as the other girl took out her phone and tapped at it. She didn't close her eyes this time but reached out again for the woman she knew was standing still in the bathroom, silenced pistol in her hand and hidden knife in her boot. She heard Rachel talking.

"Yes, Maribel. No we haven't seen them. Santana says bathroom. Armed?" Her eyes shot back over to the Latina's dark ones and the taller brunette nodded.

"Suppressed sub compact pistol, small fairborn sykes knife in left boot." Quinn looked ridiculously confused but stayed where she was when she heard the word pistol leave Santana's mouth. Back to focusing on the assailant in the bathroom, Santana reached into her mind, still hearing Rachel speak.

"Yes armed. Suppressed pistol in hand and a boot knife. I don't know what else. Santana's reading right now." The Latina sifted through memories, a huge base, watching the woman training, saw a strange symbol on the walls, something like an octopus with a human skull for a head. She saw a man, tall, blonde haired, accent perhaps slightly German. Saw further back, Columbia University, Bronton Heights High School. A smiling boy, further back, stone tombstone, further back drunken mother passed out on couch. Further back, father beating the mother...further back? Hands on her face brought her out of it, Hazel eyes she swore resembled ones she'd seen in the memory of that woman staring deep into hers.

"Come on, Santana. Wake up, talk to me!" Quinn yelled. Startling the woman in the bathroom to come running out, gun pointed at Quinn who was essentially standing in the door frame, finger depressed on the trigger. Santana pushed the blonde away then grabbed control as best she could, forcing the woman to away the gun. Forcing her to pull out then throw away the knife before she walked closer, grabbing the red head's face, staring deep into her eyes, further until she was back inside of her mind, swimming through the memories, wiping them away, wiping all of it away. She tried to create something new. Something better but she only got as far as middle school before she had to stop. She dropped the woman, not realizing she'd lifted her from the ground. Watched her look up, blank eyed for a few seconds before they settled back on muddy green. Behind her she could hear her mother and the Berry Men. Could hear Quinn asking what the fuck had happened. Could hear Rachel calling her. Grabbing her face gently, rubbing her cheeks.

She knew the other brunette was right in front of her but she seemed far away. She closed her eyes, created a vault in her mind to bury the other woman's memories, then opened them again and wrapped her arms around Rachel. She was crying, or they both were. She wasn't sure how long it'd been before her mother was wrapping her arms around her.

"I'm okay."

"Are you sure? What you did...what the hell did you do? I didn't even have time to grab her before you had her under control."

"I wiped it all away. Locked it away. She won't know what happened. She's twelve." Santana managed to get out, feeling tired all of a sudden. But she couldn't help but worry. There was no way the show choir committee would hold off the competition just because of this. What would they do?"

"As far as the convention center can tell there's been a bomb threat. There may as well have been. Plenty other rooms in the hotel have been ransacked. Including those from other schools, more importantly including those that belong to kids who aren't on our list or the index. We have a serious problem here." It was Coulson. She turned around to see him standing there, looking around the room.

"Agreed." Maribel said, rubbing a hand through her daughter's hair before reaching down to clear and lock the pistol from the ground. She dropped into an evidence bag being held by one of the agents who'd apparently been searching and cataloging the room, putting the knife into another.

"Santana can you tell me what you saw?" The Latina nodded, finally freeing herself from Rachel's arms.

"There's a base in Vermont. Near a small town called Stowe. Watched her training. Saw eyes...Hazel. Almost like Quinn's. A big painted symbol on the wall. Like and octopus with-"

"A skull for a head?" The thing that surprised and scared the shit out of Santana was that it was Quinn that said this, looking shocked, horrified, and disgusted all at once. All the eyes in the room turned towards the blonde.

"Exactly that, Miss Fabray. Would you like to tell us how you know about that?" Coulson asked, waving down the agents around the room who all had their hands on their pistols.

"My...Father. If you could call him that. He has a tattoo on his chest with that symbol. I saw it on papers and such in his office sometimes too. But I haven't seen or heard from him for a year and a half. I doubt there's anything left in the house but you're more than welcome to search it." She said, shrugging.

"You father is-" Rachel asked, looking both surprised and somehow not. Like as evil as Quinn was to her it made sense. Or at least that's how Santana saw it.

"Hydra." Santana said. Finally putting together all the clues the memories she was now privy to gave her.


	3. Chapter 3

"We're going to have more problems, Agent Coulson. There's no way they sent just her to clear however many rooms, right? And would they have sent her without some kind of insurance policy? A fail safe." Rachel mentioned, watching as they unloaded the woman from the Osprey onto a gurney.

"You're right. But as antiquated as it is they're fans of cyanide teeth. She'll have no memory of how to use it and we'll remove it immediately. The bigger concern is other potential agents that may have done the rooms on other floors. We're already in contact with hotel staff and anyone who may or may not have come in to work today." He said, waiting as Quinn's information was stored in a tablet before she was handed a name tag.

"I'm going to have to give her memories. I'm not sure what the protocol or whatever is under these circumstances, but she can't continue on being thirty something and only having memories leading up to being in the seventh grade. Unless you have another way to do that? I'm not exhausted or anything but it did take energy out of me."

"The protocol is typically interrogation in this circumstance of a captured enemy agent but that's useless in this case. You have all of her memories and have no problem sharing them so that's a positive but I don't know what the director will choose to do with her. Maybe after you give her memories we'll give her a life to live and just watch her." He said, directing the entire group into an elevator.

"What about me? I don't know how the hell this works but that asshole who donated half of my dna is Hydra, right? Does that mean...I mean am I in some kind of trouble here?" Quinn asked, obviously afraid.

"There's probably very little that you could do to help, unless you remember seeing anything specifically that you think may have been Hydra paperwork." Maribel said.

"I remember opening a folder full of files once. First one had a picture of a kid, said something about electromagnets. Second a picture of a little girl. Her name was..Jessica...something. That's important right?" The blonde asked as they stepped out of the elevator into what was obviously Coulson's office.

"Very much so, Quinn, yes. Can you remember anything else? A name, a place?" He asked, sitting at the head of a table that appeared to be for meetings.

"I feel like I saw it but I don't remember what it was. Can um...will it hurt if Santana reaches in to find it?" The Latina shook her head no immediately.

"I don't know if it hurts, but your life and your past is yours, Quinn."

"I want to help. This whole situation is crazy as hell, but unlike the two of you I'm just another normal human. No genius intellect, no mind reading, no speed, strength and flying ability. What else can I do to help? Just do it." Santana looked at Coulson and he nodded his head.

"Just be careful, Santana. Quinn do you remember how old you were when you saw all of this?"

"Fourteen."

"Fine. But relax, okay. Don't want to hurt you." Santana said. Staring into hazel eyes for a few seconds before she closed her own, being careful not to focus too deeply on memories that weren't what she was looking for. She sped past memories of Quinn staring down the hall at her and Britt standing together, pinkies linked, and past memories of her bullying Rachel. Past her lying alone in Puck's basement crying. Past the memory of her grimacing while Puck pushed inside of her. Past memories of being smacked around by her father, back too far. Back to Lucy. She pulled back. There! Quinn leaning over her father's desk, flipping through files with her eyebrow raised, her father at the store buying more scotch and her mother too drunk to even think of getting up from the couch in the den.

There they were. Names, faces, locations, powers, parents.

She opened her eyes, easing out of her friend's memories gently and pulled her phone from her pocket. Quickly but accurately she put in all the information she'd seen, sliding it across the table to Coulson. He put it down on a black glass platform on his desk, eyes wide when all of the information showed up on screen, pulling up profiles from the Shield database.

"We don't have all of this information. And some of these people are already known Hydra assets. Agent Lopez, here, I need you to get to work _right_ now. Leroy, you too. Hiram some of these will need very specific solutions. I need you to start work when Agent Lopez updates you." All three adults stood up and left the office, leaving Santana, Rachel, and Quinn behind.

"You did very well, Quinn. Thank you. And you should know that being a regular human isn't bad. Most of the agents in shield are exactly that." The blonde nodded and all three girls got up to leave the office when Coulson took a seat behind his desk and got to work. Santana swiped her card when they got into the elevator, pressing the button to bring them down to the cafeteria. It had been two hours since everything that had happened in Rachel and Santana's hotel room and National's had been canceled and would not start again until next year. A call had been made to Quinn's mother and the rest of the group was headed back to Ohio.

"How do you know me so well already?" Rachel said, huge smile on her face as she grabbed her tray.

"What does she mean?" Quinn asked, hungry as well, putting a bacon burger, fries, and a coke on her tray.

"She means how did I know she was hungry. She eats a lot. Like a lot. You'll be surprised." the Latina clarified, watching Quinn's eyes widen as Rachel stacked food on her poor tray. Five veggie burgers, six orders of fries, mushroom noodle stir fry, and much more. The blonde looked horrified.

"I didn't even eat that much when I was pregnant!" She said as they all sat down, Santana with just a salad and a bottle of Gatorade on her tray.

"Yes well, I didn't explain it yet but I did explain my abilities and as such my bodies metabolism is far faster than what you might expect. Therefore I have to eat quite a lot.

"Understatement." Santana said, stealing a few of both Rachel's and Quinn's fries.

"No kidding. I get it though. It's cool now I don't have to feel like the fat one at the table. Not that you are the fat one. I just mean like...you know, everything you just said about your metabolism."

"I understand what you mean. And Santana, I swear! Why must you steal our food?" The Latina shrugged.

"It's a sign that she actually considers you a friend. If she didn't she wouldn't take from your plate even if you had her mother's dulce de leche cheesecake." Rachel hummed then nodded, finishing her third burger and digging into her stir fry.

"In that case steal away, Santana."

"Will do. Hey I wonder if Coulson would mind if I shadowed your dad. Like, you know while he isn't doing classified shit. Like I obviously already know all about everything going on with all of the people Quinn just gave us. I should have whatever clearance level that's on at least, right?"

"Level 5? I'm not sure. Shield is bigger than you may think and there's quite a lot going on, I have no idea what all would be on that clearance level and what you access would be. You can check you tag though. Just tap your image, it'll tell you what clearance level you have." Rachel said, tapping hers for example. Her name came up along with clearance level. It said 6. Santana did the same to hers and it said 5, Quinn's said 5 as well.

"Oh well that's makes sense. I mean you've been here forever right? Here meaning with Shield in some way." Santana asked, finally finished off the paper cup of fries she'd taken from Rachel while the smaller brunette had polished off all of her food.

"I have actually, yes." Rachel said quietly.

"Cool, so I can go bother your dad if he's cool. Maybe not though. I mean these people, Hydra having them, that shit's serious right?"

"Very much. If you'd like an alternative I can show you my gym."

"You're gym?" Quinn asked.

"I don't mean mine specifically, I mean mine as in it caters to people like me. With enhanced physical attributes. Santana I believe there's an area where you can test exactly where your abilities start and stop as well. Though If I'm wrong I doubt it'd work at all." She said honestly, shrugging.

"Wrong about what, Rach?"

"I have thought that perhaps your abilities aren't limited to exploring and even exhibiting control through the human brain. It hinges on how exactly you made that Hydra agent get rid of her weapons. Did you take control of her body, or did you take control of her mind?"

"I'm not telekinetic. I took control of her mind. Used her brain to move her body. But maybe Q and I can hit the regular gym, spar or something. The both of us practice Krav Maga and Jui Jitsu.

"Oh, Jui Jitsu is your mother's specialty, did you learn that from her?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, we both did. Then Coach had all the Cheerios in Krav Maga the summers after Freshman and Junior year." Rachel nodded as they all stacked their dirty trays and then walked to the elevator.

"Okay, then we'll head to quarters to change and head to sub level 20."

Must you always kick my ass, Q, seriously?" Santana complained, gulping down orange Gatorade like it would help her win against Quinn in the stand up game. It wouldn't.

"I suppose. It's less me intending to kick your ass and more me refusing to lose."

"I could see how that would be a thing, yeah." Quinn's eyes shot up to hers from where they'd been focused on her pulling her gloves off.

"I suppose you did see, didn't you. Saw him beat the shit out of me repeatedly. Saw my mom being too much of a useless _fucking_ drunk to do a damn thing about it. Probably even saw her when she was oh so _rarely_ sober, listening to him _kick my ribs in_ and ignoring it! Bitch!" Quinn said, somehow being cognizant of the fact that she should yell like she obviously wanted to. In a second she was launching her wrapped right fist into the heavy bag to her right side. The left came next, Santana watching as she launched combo after combo into the heavy bag, quickly moving to stop her before she fucked up her knuckles any further.

"Quinn stop. For fucks sake stop! Shit. Put the fucking gloves back on at least." Santana said, letting go and grabbing the gloves back from the floor to slide them over the blonde's fists. As soon as they were on right she turned back to the bag, launching more combos, adding in kicks plus knees and elbows when she closed range only to back away and send the bag swinging to the right with a spinning back fist. She was an unfurling ball of rage and though it worried Santana to no end it she also thought that maybe it'd be good for her. Being allowed the time and space to let all of that pain, hate, and rage out. Not on the man who deserved it, not yet, but just out of her heart. That'd have to be good enough for now.

Santana was selfish enough to realize she had no sparring partner now and wondered if Rachel was in control enough of her power to get into some grapple sparring with her. She walked out of the door of the gym and looked around the concrete hallway, making her way down the hall she was sure she saw Rachel walk down. There was a door to her left and she opened it, only slightly confused as what she saw. There were what looked to be steel balls, the first of them minuscule. It was the size of an m&m maybe. And they went up in size from that, the largest of them taller than her. This must be the telekinetic room. Closing the door behind her she walked to the small steel ball, staring at it for a few moments as she contemplated how she would even begin. When manipulating the Hydra agent she'd simply gone with what she figured her powers encompassed already.

Like really how likely would it have been that her only powers were a picture perfect memory and the ability to wade through others' memories? She thought that maybe she could control the brain she'd been exploring as well and it had suddenly become that simple. Focusing all of her attention on the small steel ball, she thought about it just miraculously lifting into the air in front of her. As if she'd picked it up without touching it.

It didn't move. So she changed tactics and thought smaller. About atoms of carbon, iron, manganese, phosphorous and so on vibrating even quicker, even harder, rubbing against each other, creating friction, and therefore...heat. That obviously wouldn't work, and didn't seem to be. It'd been five minutes already and nothing was happening. Maybe she'd have to be more thoughtful, more creative, if she wanted to figure out the thought process it'd take for the ball in front of her to lift above the small surfaced but long legged lead table it sat upon. She shrugged and turned around to leave, letting the potential atoms go in her mind and walking out of the gym, never turning around to see the small ball of high strength steel melting behind her.

"I suppose I should be so surprised that you can control your strength so well. Considering Britt says you give the best, softest hugs." Santana said gulping down her third bottle of Gatorade of the day.

"It's strange to explain but the strength isn't as natural as you would think. It doesn't just happen when I have to pull open a door or open a jar of pickles. I have to want to use it. It isn't difficult. It's just the way I've trained myself. So that I never hurt someone accidentally, for example. I would hate that." Rachel said, Santana watching as she gulped down two gallons of water.

"I get what you mean. Anyway, you're pretty good on your back. You transition like a wrestler though, what's with that?"

"Oh, yes, well I took classes. There's a predominantly female MMA gym in Cleveland and I learned there. They wanted to teach me striking as well but I was still young when I started and only just learning to control my strength and I was terrified of hurting someone. Speaking of where's Quinn. Weren't you two sparring?" Rachel asked, finishing her third jug of water and moving to stand near the beginning of the awfully large and tall obstacle course that took up a huge part of what was supposed to be a gym but was damn near the size of the lower half of a basketball arena. She wondered if she would even hear the tiny diva once she got to the top but realized that if there was one thing she knew Rachel could do it was projecting her voice to fill huge spaces.

"Ah, rolling around with another girl, feeling like a boss when you mount. I can respect that." She had to yell out. God damn Rachel was fast. She'd only barely seen her on the various obstacles. She wasn't a blur exactly, but damn near. She moved faster than any human Santana had ever seen. Which brought a question to the tip of her tongue. She'd figured by this point that she was a mutant or something like it. Having received her powers from her father who had them before her. And though Rachel had said something about her abilities coming from her mother, no one else had mentioned her. Whoever she was.

"Oh, well yes I would assume that you could. Not that I don't. I'm not specific in that way when it comes to perspective partners." Rachel said as she sprinted towards where Santana was still standing.

"Meaning you're what? Pansexual?" Santana asked, tossing Rachel yet another gallon of water... She had to wonder how often the girl had to piss.

"Exactly that, yes."

"Alright. Oh, wait didn't you ask me about Quinn? She's back in the, as she called it, muggle gym. Beating the ever loving shit out of a heavy bag. I asked why she always beats me like every time in striking and it opened a can of horrible sadistic worms.

"Ah, concerning Russel physically abusing her and her mother essentially letting it happen?"

"Um, yeah, but how the hell did you know that?"

"We had a conversation once when she was pregnant and alone in Noah's basement. I comforted her as best I could. She wouldn't let me come over there, so it had to be over the phone. I think she just needed to get it off of her chest. I was happy to help as I always am when it concerns people I care about." Rachel said easily.

"And you care about her?"

"Of course I do. I care about everyone in Glee Club even when they're being especially vicious and vindictive. I care about you two especially. I've always wanted to be your friend. I've told the both of you that. And though it does admittedly have to do with always being sure the two of you hated me it also has to do with me just _knowing_ that the both of you were better people than you showed us all." Santana nodded as they left the gym, walking back towards the so called muggle gym to find Quinn.

When they opened the door and walked inside they found Quinn doing kipping pull ups, very well muscled arms flexing on every up swing. After the eight they saw her doing she hopped down to do clapping push ups, and then when those reps were done she was on to upside-down sit ups on the pull up bar.

"She's crazy."

"Or just driven. She works out just as hard as someone else I know. This woman who I'm talking about told me that it's about pushing yourself until you know personally where your limit is. So that eventually you can extend your limit even further."

"Okay, but why. I know about pushing hard. I've been working out under Coach for three years you know. But she always pushes harder." Rachel just shrugged.

"Because in the real world, in a situation like the one we were in today, limits are nothing but death sentences. If you can't push a little harder, a little farther, then you die. How would that situation have been different today if neither of us were there? No you to shut that agent down, no me to knock her unconscious. Just Quinn alone with a woman with a gun and a knife. I know she's thinking about that as well. Honestly she'd make a good Shield agent. In the future perhaps, if she's interested."

Santana had nothing to say. Rachel was completely right.

"I wonder if they'd let her shoot a gun? I mean like learn how to." Santana clarified, walking back over to one of fridges in the corner to grab a Gatorade.

"I'm not sure. I suppose we could always-"

"I already know how to shoot. At least at amateur level. Handguns, shotguns, marksman rifles, AR platform, AK platform. It was the one time my useless father seemed to be proud of me. Until I got better than him. Then he was just as red faced and furious as always." Quinn said, coming up behind them without either hearing until she spoke.

"Fucking ninja. Here, drink up. You've been kicking ass as usual I see. Let's go shower. Then we can find something to do. I can't work out any more today." Santana groaned out, leading the way out of the gym, down the hallway, and into the elevator.

"Sounds acceptable to me. You do technically have clearance to use the range facilities, Quinn. Although you aren't cleared for a weapon, certainly. You'd have to seek clearance from a superior officer, but seeing as neither of you have one of those I suppose we could consider going to mine. Though Maribel is guaranteed to be busy with all of this information. Perhaps it's better left for another time. Maybe we could consider using the pool?" Rachel said and they reached their three doors.

"What about not working out anymore today was I unclear about, Rach?"

"We could just float around. It'd help, really. You know that S. Besides as decked out this place seems to be there's guaranteed to be a hot tub or something.

"It's not decked out exactly. It's just that plenty of the people here live here. The amenities are primarily for them. There is a hot tub though, yes."

"I'm down. Be out in twenty."

"This is exactly what I needed, seriously. Afterwards we can go to the caf and watch Rachel stuff her face with pasta or something." Santana said, relaxing even further into the hot water as her eyes closed.

"I was thinking pasta, yes."

"Have either of you thought about what we're going to do for school? We still have finals."

"Maribel will have them pass the classes. I don't know if either of you noticed but I was gone at the end of the year last year too. We tried to get the school to just send the tests for me to complete but they didn't want me to cheat or something of the sort so they just judged it based on my overall grade for the class. So as long as you're passing your classes you'll pass your classes."

"But how long are we going to be out here in New York or wherever the hell we actually are?" Quinn asked, finally voicing a question she'd been thinking about since after lunch.

"If you would like to go home, Quinn, you can. Just inform Maribel and she'll have send you home. I think you were brought here primarily because of your father but now that information is known you don't have to stay here if you don't want to." Santana didn't have to open her eyes to tell that Rachel didn't want Quinn to leave but she did anyway, looking over and poking her Blonde friend in the side.

"I didn't say that, Rachel. I would think it obvious that I don't ever want to go back there but I'm sure Shield isn't planning to permanently set us up here. Or at least not me. They have multiple good reason to want the two of you here. They have none when it comes to me."

"You won't be going home so soon Quinn." Coulson said, appearing from no where.

"Goddamned ninjas I swear. The both of you." Santana muttered.

"I didn't tell you at the time because we were busy with the hydra agent, but your room was ransacked as well. As far as we can tell you have to extra-human abilities so we think that it was just your Father after you for some reason, but you aren't safe. The fact that he hasn't returned to your mother's house in all this time makes me think that he has no interest in her, which makes you and his interest in you a mystery. We're not particularly fans of mysteries here. Especially when they're as dangerous as all of this happens to be." The blonde nodded, just as confused as Coulson appeared to be.

"He always said I was an investment, but I never knew what he meant. Not sure if that helps at all. I always just thought it was more bullshit, honestly, Agent Coulson." He frowned the first the girl's had seen on his face.

"Maybe not. We'll see what we can dig up. In the mean time we were able to find and authenticate records and awards of your accuracy at the various shooting ranges your father took you to. You've been cleared for the firing range on sub level 19. As for you, Santana. I think you may be surprised by the news I have for you." He said, smiling once again.

"Oh, why, what's up?"

"What's up is that you melted a high strength steel ball." Santana's eyes went wide and Quinn looked confused over what he was talking about.

"Really..." Rachel asked, tapping her fingers on the edge of the hot tub.

"That worked? Crap. I didn't think it would. Like I mean obviously the science of friction and heat made sense but I didn't think I could actually influence that. It requires ridiculously precise control. Took me five minutes though. And if it melted it must have been after I left."

"Just as you left as a matter of fact. Leroy hypothesized that it was because you let go of mental control of the ball and therefore let the atoms fall back into the place they would have naturally been in."

"Well shit. That's going to require more experimentation then. To see if I can reverse that process and so on. I mean that's matter manipulation. That's dangerous, Agent Coulson. You have a safe room or something right?" She asked, horrified at the idea of hurting anyone or destroying the base, god forbid.

"Of course. Tomorrow morning? Leroy will meet you there, I'll send directions to your tablet. Good night, ladies." He walked away, leaving Santana more than a little shocked and even more excited. Holy shit. Matter manipulation? Had her father had all of these powers? She should ask her Mami or maybe Hiram.

"Look at you getting even more bad ass, S." Quinn said, laughing lightheartedly.

"She's right. You're becoming quite impressive to have just gained these abilities this morning, Santana. I can only imagine how formidable you'll become with some practice and control.

"Yeah, sure. If by bad ass you mean dangerous. And yeah, Rach. Control sounds really fucking good. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"I know exactly how you feel, Santana." The Latina nodded, looking down at her wrinkly hands and stepping out of the hot tub.

"Change then dinner?" Both girl's nodded, following her out of the pool room.

Santana stood in a rather large grey room, hexagonal shapes creating a pattern of indents. She knew Leroy stood in a room just outside of hers, speaking into her ear through the mic set into it.

"Okay very good Santana. Now we know that you can reverse the process. Let's go back towards heating again and see if we can test the time and then work on a larger object.

Two hours later and she was guzzling back Gatorade, sweating. She'd managed to reduce the time it took to melt the same size ball down to ten seconds. Though the time increased exponentially along with the size of the object, which obviously made sense. She was proud of herself but tired. She couldn't help but wonder what about using her brain made her body tired. There was a slight headache but it wasn't too bad.

"Break, Santana? I'm tired just watching you. Want to go eat and early lunch and then maybe come back?" Leroy asked. She'd gotten to know him a bit during the last four hours and she had to say she really liked the guy. She shook her head, knowing he would see it on the feed to his screen.

"No. Not yet. Want to try something. Just...silly maybe. Not sure about application." She rasped out.

"Go ahead. Try it, Santana."

She didn't walk any closer to the beach ball shaped sphere of steel she'd been last working with, instead choosing to take a seat in the chair that had been left against the wall. She closed her eyes and focused on the vibrations of the atoms again, as had been the cornerstone of the entire morning of experimentation. But this time instead having the atoms vibrate in any three dimensional direction as she had been, she forced them all to align and vibrate in a parallel direction. Soon she heard the bouncing and subtle shake of the ball of steel doing exactly as she'd directed, bouncing up and down in front of her. She stopped slowly, watching as the ball set down instead of dropping. Grinning, she pointed up at the nearest camera.

"That's what's up, Lee! Totally worked. I'm fucking awesome." The man laughed, his voice deep and smooth.

"Agreed, Kid. You do know how dangerous that is though, right?" He said it like he knew he didn't even have to ask.

"Course I do. Could cause an earthquake if I'm stupid. Could cause worse. I have no intention of using it. Not really. But I thought it might work and I wanted to know for sure." Two massive doors opened on the other side of the safe room and she walked out, slapping a high five on Leroy when he held his hand up for her.

"Glad you understand."

"Course I do. Gotta ask you a question though, Leroy. Maybe I should ask my Mom or Hiram, but your the bio specialist around here.

"Shoot."

"My Papi...did he have powers like this? Matter manipulation?" Leroy led her out into the elevator tapping his fingers against his left arm after crossing them.

"No, Kid. He didn't."


	4. Chapter 4

"Oh, hello Santana, Daddy. Good morning. How was it? Find out anything new?" Rachel asked from where she'd paused over a huge pile of food. Santana just rolled her eyes, pouring syrup over her chocolate chip pancakes and the pieces of sausage next to the stack.

"Yeah, couple of things. Where's Q? She already ate?" Leroy sipped at his coffee at bit at the pastry on his plate, watching as Hiram walked into the cafeteria, put food on his tray, and sat down across from him. He leaned across to press a kiss to his lips.

"Morning, love."

"Oh, Quinn ate breakfast with Dad and I this morning then went down to the range. I figured she'd come up for lunch, but it's early still." Santana nodded.

"Yeah, true. Wonder how she's doing though. I don't know shit about guns but it'd be cool to see. I wonder what distances the range goes to though. I mean we're underground or so I'd assume, so how far could it really?" Santana said, cutting a piece of sausage to put in her mouth just as Rachel finished the last of her food and reached for the gallon of water by her feet.

"Oh it's larger than you might think, actually. Consider how big the safe room we were in was. I think the shooting range's longest distance is out to 750 yards. So with that in mind Shield Marksmanship tests aren't completed here." Hiram said, chin on his fisted hand as he leaned against the table.

"He's right. Maybe when we leave you can call her, tell her to make sure she eats lunch. I know she has the habit of getting so into a particular task that she'll forget to take care of herself." Santana nodded in agreement. She'd seen that plenty of times. To many. She pulled her phone from her pocket and slid three of her fingers along the back to get it to extend into tablet size, tapping on it's screen to get it to call Quinn. The blonde's face filled up the screen and she looked a little tired but there was a smile curving her lips.

"Hey, Q! What's up? Still at the range? How is it, having fun? Oh, say hi to everyone." Santana turned the tablet over to face Rachel, the other brunette smiling brightly and waving. Then towards Leroy and Hiram who both did the same. When she brought it back to her face the blonde was standing up from where she'd been crouched on the floor.

"It's great. Not at the range anymore though. Agent Oliver, the range master, saw me kicking ass and taking names and thought that I'd be up for tackling some of the stuff they have here that they use at the field agent training facility. So I've got to go, but I'll be out of here in about an hour or so, and I'll make sure to go eat lunch, okay?" The blonde asked, and Santana watched as she gulped down a bottle of grape Gatorade before tossing the bottle in the recycling bin.

"Oh, that sounds awesome, Q. And good, Rachel was worried that you might forget to eat. We'll see you later. Hit either of us up if you want to find something to do later today before dinner. Have fun Q, peace." Quinn waved and Santana returned the sentiment, disconnecting the call afterwards.

"She is something else, seriously. Scores like this she'd make quite the field agent." Hiram said, looking down at something on his tablet that the girls couldn't see.

"That's exactly what I said, Dad." Santana nodded, agreeing just based on what she guessed field agents got up to. She had gathered that her mother was one by this point, but she'd met no others as far as she knew. But Quinn had leadership skills by the handful, and the ability to make tough decisions, and to hurt and maybe even kill someone when she needed to. Which she thought might be even more important. With people like her and Rachel around that had to be important. Especially considering the kind of people she knew Hydra had on their side as well. She'd taken the information from Quinn and watched as the files came up on Coulson's screen so she knew exactly the kind of threat the world could be facing without field agents to detain or neutralize them.

"So I know Daddy is about to go back to work, Santana. What do you think you'll do? I think I'm going to do some running." Santana shrugged. Maybe she'd hit the pool and do some laps.

"Not sure."

"Perhaps you'd like to come to the engineering lab with me. Your mother is out with her team on leads from the information you and Quinn gave us. You can see the kind of stuff I'm working on and maybe I can tell you some more about your dad." That sounded awesome, really. She'd wanted to spend some time shadowing Hiram the day before, and hearing more about her Papi sweetened the deal.

"Sounds good to me, Hiram, thanks." He just smiled at her and she thought that maybe she really reminded him of her father. She didn't look very much like her mother, so maybe that was it.

"I'm sorry, what are you suggesting?" Hiram asked, brows furrowed over his hazel eyes and lips in rather thin line. Santana didn't exactly like him looking at her like she'd disappointed him or something. She was thinking rationally, she thought.

"I'm suggesting using harmonic resonance. Against this subject it'll work. If I'm correct the way he'd start earthquakes and such isn't that different from what I just did this morning. Causing the atoms in the stone or rock to harmonize and move in the same direction at the same tempo. If you find that frequency and create a device that resonate the reverse you could stop whatever he may be doing." It sounded simple as far as she was concerned.

"Santana, if his file is correct, the difference is that he isn't doing this with his mind, he's somehow doing it with his body, and we have no way of knowing how it may affect him to use this proposed device on him or the area around him." Santana bit her lip, tapped her left foot against the ground, and shrugged.

"That may be true, but if SHIELD is all that stands between him and destroying a city with an earthquake isn't that an option we need to have, Hiram?" He stared deep in to her eyes, or so it felt for her, then nodded his head. He swiped the file away from the screen that was a table as well, putting them on the next subject.

"Right, Zhao Wei. Pyrokineticist. Tianjin." Santana said, opening the short video of the girl who would be fifteen now slinging fireballs at Santana's mother before she was frozen out.

"Yes. Although I'm not sure how well that freezing technique will work. It's been five years. We don't know where she is, and if that happens to be with Hydra we don't know. If it is, god forbid, she'll be far stronger and icing her out will no longer work. She'll burn through it." Hiram said, taking a seat in the high chair next to the table and bringing up statistical information about the Chinese girl's powers.

"Fire needs oxygen, obviously. Maybe something along those lines? I suppose it would depend on whether she can create fire or if her ability is limited to controlling it." The Latina said, leaning over the table to go over the statistics.

"No known evidence of her creating fire. She's been seen with a lighter or matches before. Something small to give her a flame to control or make even larger."

"Meaning more dangerous, yes. Regardless the fact is even if she does create fire somehow there's nothing for it to do but be extinguished in a vacuum. This isn't anywhere near a perfect solution. This vacuum box would have to be large enough to encompass her entirely and extremely heat resistant inside. It won't be of use in a situation in which she's already created a raging inferno. We'll need something more mobile. Do SHIELD already have heat resistant suits?" Santana asked, already opening up a small part of the screen to search for it. Those that came up were rather bulky.

"We do of course, but they aren't for this application and they'll need reworking to minimize weight and maximize mobility."

"Agreed. Perhaps we can start from another point. With these level two environmental suits, increase their heat and flame resistance." Santana said, walking away to pull over a screen on wheels like a rolling white board, sending the mk. 2 evo suits up to the screen and then marking on the changes that would be needed.

"Perhaps we could use graphene nanoribbon tertiary layer, yes? Obviously that would be highly insulated as well as strong. With modern armor above it there would be little chance of traditional projectile weapons penetrating the suit at all." Santana hummed, adding those notes to the screen as well. Then adding a note about a super cooled fluid layer.

"Very good idea. It's enjoyable to work with you, Santana. You're just as quick-witted and sharp as Victor was. He'd be proud of you, you know. He always said he hoped you'd follow in your mother's and his footsteps. He believed in what SHIELD is all about." Santana's eyes went wide and her hands slammed quietly on the table.

"He...he talked about me? Because my mom always said that he died before I was born. That he saved her life." Hiram tilted his head just a bit and nodded.

"Just before you were born yes. Less than a month. Your mother had been on desk duty since she became pregnant, but she was still just as vigilant at her job back then. There was an attack on the building she'd been stopping by to work in that day. Your father dropped her off then went to get her some food to satisfy her cravings. When he got back, Hydra agents were executing anyone that didn't wasn't of interest. He worked his way through the building and got there just as they realized who your mother was. The lead on their team put his gun to her stomach and threatened to pull the trigger if she didn't get them in to the database and turn over any and all information they wanted." Santana nodded, tears falling from her eyes. He didn't have to say much more. She could imagine how this would end.

"He took a bullet for us." Hiram nodded, coming around the table to be closer in case the currently fragile young woman needed him.

"Essentially yes. Our teams got there too late to save him. Your mother was devastated and fell into a dangerously deep depression. It was only because of you that she took care of herself. And then a month later you were born and...I suppose she realized she didn't have time to do anything but love you and take care of you. After all, you're the only real part of him she has left." He said, shrugging. Santana stiffened and backed away, scowling.

"And I almost threw myself off of a roof. Fucking selfish as hell of me wasn't it. Jesus. Need to stop focusing on myself so much. Try to be better for the people I love."

"That's an honorable idea. And a good one. Speaking of good idea's, let's go eat. Not exactly sure how it got to be dinner time already." Santana just nodded stretching her arms around her sides before she followed the engineer out of his lab and into the elevator. He swiped his tag and hit the button and it was mere seconds before they were in the cafeteria.

"So what's up with the speedy but smooth ride? Inertial dampeners?" Santana asked as they got in the line to grab food. The Latina taking roast chicken, carrots, and mashed potatoes and gravy. The two of them found the table with everyone else at it, sitting down and returning greetings.

"It is inertial dampeners of a type. There are even the classic counterweights along with-"

"Hey, no engineering talk at the dinner table, you two." Leroy said, causing both Hiram and Santana to frown and return to eating their food, both of them sulking.

"Yeah, so like I was saying, he had me do the whole course. Or as much as I could do today. All the pt stuff is done, and he cleared me for everything else to start tomorrow with Agent Coulson. I'll still have to have a degree of course, all of which I can finish within two years. By the end of the summer I'll have tested out and graduated high school." Rachel beamed, sliding across the space between them on the bench to wrap her arms around the blonde.

"Wow, Quinn! I'm so proud of you. I've been saying since yesterday that you would make an amazing shield agent. I'm glad you have found something to enjoy here. I hoped you would."

"Wait what happened?" Santana asked, ignoring the horrified look on Rachel's face at her essentially destroying the stupidly good roasted chicken.

"I'm on the path to becoming a shield agent. I'm starting already, and then once I get my bachelors I can start all of the extra requirements for going from a regular agent to a field agent, which is what I want to do." Santana nodded, spooning mashed potatoes into her mouth.

"That's bad ass, Q. Very very cool. I guess I can let go of hope of ever sparring with you and you not kicking my ass into next week." The blonde smirked and nodded.

"Yep. Not sure how you held out hope this long." Santana just shrugged, nudging Rachel with her shoulder when she laughed.

"Shut up, she'd kick your tiny ass too if you don't cheat."

"Language, Mija." Maribel said, appearing from out of nowhere. Santana swore she was surrounded by god damned ninjas.

"Sorry, Ma. What's up, thought you were out on assignment."

"Just got back. Brought one in." Santana's eyes went wide and she pulled away her mother's coat, checking her for injuries, just noticing what appeared to be a huge burn through the sleeve of her jacket when Leroy spoke up. The skin below looked better than it should, all things considered.

"Everything went okay? Who did you find, Maribel?" It was Leroy who asked. Standing to reach across the table and inspect her left arm.

"Must've been Wei. No one else on the list is a pyrokineticist."

"Isn't my name anymore. I really wish you'd all stop calling me that." A voice everyone at the table recognized, Santana turned around, mouth and eyes wide.

"No fucking way!" She wanted to yell but didn't, only those at the table and Tina, who was walking toward the heard her.

"Holy shit. Tina? Really?" The younger girl rolled her eyes at Quinn but nodded, sitting down at the table and ignoring the eyes watching her as she bit into her burger.

"I have to admit that I did not expect this. Maribel what are the circumstances of her being here aside from the obvious?"

"She isn't Hydra. Never was. Her aunt and uncle hid her away in Ohio after the last time I saw her and she escaped back in China. She's been there the whole time under my nose."

"Okay but like...how did you find her? She's been in Lima since she was in sixth grade at least." Santana said, watching Tina just in case.

"We stopped at the base to refuel and there was an incident in town."

"By incident she means a bunch of guys in fatigues coming to try and grab me. I guess they followed the breadcrumbs that lead to me being here. They killed my aunt and uncle, so I killed them. Just in very dramatic fashion." Tina said, shrugging.

"She means she blew up the house with them in it."

"That. Yeah." Quinn's eyebrow was up above her right eye, and Rachel looked flabbergasted but Santana not so much. She could understand the motivation behind that.

"Well oh fucking kay then, Tina. So how's this work then? Tag and release?" Santana asked, ignoring the look her mother sent her when she cursed.

"Not in this case, Santana, no. With Hydra after her it's unsafe for both her and everyone else for her to be anywhere that isn't under Shield protection." Leroy said, standing up when Tina finished her food.

"Come with me, Tina. We'd like to get an idea of the range and origin of your powers when you use them." She shrugged, obviously not in the mood to be much more chatty. She followed the tall man out of the cafeteria, leaving all three teenage girl's left at the table confused.

"No, but really?" Quinn said.

"I suppose so. Agent Coulson did hint at the fact that there were more rooms on our floor that had been searched through. I wonder if there are more. I know you can't tell us Maribel. I suppose we'll see." Santana shrugged.

"Shit, I guess so. I just hope Finnocence isn't some kind of giant rock mutant."

"Santana, stop. He may be hard headed but-" She frowned as both Santana and Quinn devolved into heavy laughter. She stomped her foot under the table which just made Santana wrap her arms around her.

"Sorry...sorry. Just was kind of hilarious."

"You two are so childish sometimes."

"Sure Rachel. You're right. If by childish you mean amazing and by sometimes you mean 24/7 365."

"The answer is no. I don't want you in my head!" Tina said, arms crossed and stance highly defensive. Santana rolled her eyes. She like this Tina like a million times less than the one she was used to seeing every day.

"Look why don't you calm the fuck down, alright. You think I want to go on some magical meditation journey in your mind? I don't, okay. I have better shit I could be doing today with Hiram. But this is to help your ornery ass. So why don't you save the gigantic chip on your shoulder for someone who deserves it so we can get started."

She had little to no patience for this kind of bullshit. Her mother was back out in the field and the last thing she wanted was for her to get hurt by some other "Wizard" as Quinn had taken to calling them. Because apparently she couldn't keep the Potter geek inside anymore. Not that Santana minded it really. She as adorable when she was ranting about it all. Back to the matter at hand, Tina was scowling but nodded her agreement.

"Alright Tina go ahead and do what you usually do the conjure a flame." Leroy said over the earpeice, Santana adjusted herself in the heavy level three enviro suit she was wearing. It wasn't uncomfortable exactly, but it felt weird wearing something so heavy. In front of her, Tina pulled a black zippo lighter from her pocket, flipping it on and then closing it, the flame it lit already in the palm of her hand. She made it larger and separated it into three fireballs, juggling them in front of her.

"So like you said you can't create flame from nothing, but Santana's going to help you do that. Just relax, alright. She won't hurt you. You can close your eyes if you think it'll help you do that. What you'll want to do is focus on what allows you to take the flame from where it is over the lighter and take control of it, we'll work from there." Leroy said, watching as the shorter brunette of the two closed her hands and let the flames from her hands disappear.

Santana didn't close her own eyes, she was past the point of needing to do that by this point. But she reached out, ignored the non relevant memories, and focused on the task at hand. She saw Tina taking fire from that light again and again and again until she realized the answer was deeper than where she was. She pushed forward until she found what she was looking for. In a dark space that had only ever existed in Tina's mind sat a small, minuscule, flame. She reached for it, pulling it out and placing it where it belonged, in the brunette's hand. She watched as it grew slightly in size until there was a flame the size of a baseball in Tina's hand, neon blue in color.

"Holy shit! That...that came from me?" She said, grinning over at Santana, who just rolled her eyes and nodded.

"Yea, Tina. It came from you. Just be careful with it. It's inside of you in a way and that can be more dangerous than what you were used to before. Anyway, I've got a date with some tech and your husband, Lee. I'll see the both of you later." Tina just nodded then turned back around, watching the much hotter flame grow while she kept a tight hold of it.

Meanwhile Santana was pulling off the environment suit, putting it back in it's cabinet along the wall, happy to be back to her shield jumpsuit.

"Stop trying to steal my husband, kid!" Leroy yelled into the microphone, laughing the whole time. Santana was just walking through the hallway towards the elevator she heard it. She scoffed as she got in, swiped her tag, and pressed the button that'd take her up to the engineering lab.

"Yeah right. If anything I'd steal your daughter!" Is what came out of her mouth. She grimaced. Well shit that was an accident. And not even anything she'd been actively thinking about honestly. It surprised her just as much as it probably surprised Leroy.

"You can borrow her for dinner and a movie but I expect her back in quarters before midnight, young lady." He said, laughing. Dinner and a movie with Rachel? That didn't sound bad. It sounded good actually.

"Right. Before midnight. I gotcha Leroy. I'll see you later, gonna pull my earpiece." He said goodbye before she pulled the small piece of skin toned plastic from her ear, pressing a button on her phone that deactivated it before she slipped it in it's little case and back in her pocket.

It was a minute or so before she was walking into the lab, seeing Hiram tinkering with some circuits and servos on what looked like a thin backpack. The pack was set onto the back of a hard suit of some kind, helmet removed and obviously empty while strapped to a working frame that allowed access to the front, back, and even the sides when it was turned.

"Is that influenced by the iron man suit?" She asked, walking closer to get a good look at what the Engineer was working on.

"No actually. I've been working on it's concept for a long time, and god knows Stark's is much better in many ways. Besides, this one isn't the same exactly. It's purpose is different."

"That much I think I can tell. How many chips are in this thing? A computer in a suit. Too heavy duty to be for recon, right? And this surface isn't the same as the one that you used for the Osprey 2.0 to make the cloak tech work." He smiled at her, setting her small electronic screw driver down to pull the rolling screen over and bring up the suit's blueprints.

"No. It's a heavy combat suit. And this computer that I'm working on in the back is intended to keep the wearer alive and get them back to the nearest base if at all possible. It can communicate conditions and intel to exfil craft, and can continue to walk around even if the human inside is injured and or unconscious."

"Hiram that sounds an aweful lot like it's damn near AI." She said, her mind creating horrible potential scenarios.

"Not quite, no. Perhaps in the future we'll get there but it'll take some time. If we were, however, able to create an Artificial Intelligence anytime soon it certainly wouldn't fit on the back of this suit. What has you worried?" He asked, sipping from his cup of coffee.

"I read too much Asimov as a kid is all." He nodded his head and rolled the frame the suit was strapped into away into a corner.

"Oh, me too. I understand your concern. Now, on to current projects, what did you learn from Tina?"

"That she can in fact conjure flame herself without her lighter. So you can add that and the video Lee will have to the database. In the meantime you and I, sir, have plenty of work to do. There are plenty of others on the list we got. Let's get down to business." He just smiled at her and nodded, bringing up the next person on the list.

"Timur Golovanov. Precognition. I don't know what there is we could do for that with the exception of me or someone like me being there to shut it down myself. Which I know isn't happening. But it could be dangerous, sure. Especially if in the hands of Hydra." Hiram nodded and swiped the screen, frowning when the next file came up.

"Ndale Choi. Technopathy. This one could be a real problem, Santana. We'd have to be careful what equipment was used by the retrieval team. Anything digital at all could be turned against them. Tablets, other communication devices, an entire aircraft..."

"So they go in analog, sedate him and bring him back. There's got to be a room here cut off from the rest of the base's tech, right? I mean the kind of people you have here, people like me, Rachel, Tina...There something right? A room that's just concrete or whatever?" She asked, knowing there had to be. If they knew about someone who could manipulate and infiltrate all of the electronics in this place and any other SHIELD base they'd have had to put an analog room in each one.

"Yeah. Just the safe room you've been in. It's designed to drop off and sink into the ocean if push comes to very hard shove." She nodded. She could understand that. In fact she fully expected them do push whatever button there was if she lost control of her powers.

"Right. Okay good." Santana whispered to herself.

"Let's move on."

"No, I'm serious. My audio was linked into both of theirs. I know what I heard Rachel." Tina said nodding her head as Santana sat down and dropped three waffles on top of Rachel's tray.

"Hey Rachel. They just finished the next batch. Said you were waiting. And Cohen-Change, I'm going to go ahead and hope that you didn't just tell Rachel what I think you did. You know, for your sake." Santana scowled when the shorter brunette just shrugged her shoulders.

"Even if I did there's nothing you could do about it. I'm not afraid of you anymore Santana Lopez. I don't have to hide just exactly how powerful I am here. This isn't McKinley and you aren't some HBIC here." Tina said, attitude dripping from her words. Santana wanted to reach across the table and right her neck. Rachel lifted one hand towards each of them, obviously about three seconds from asking them to calm down.

"Tina, I'll ask you not to antagonize Santana. And what you told me was between her and my father and obliviously wasn't yours to tell. Santana, please just let it go, okay? What she says doesn't matter."

"I think the bigger problem, Wei Zhao, is that you don't understand that it'd be you who couldn't do anything at all. I'm going to very fucking kindly ask you to mind your own business. But this is the first and last time I'll do so, get me?" She stood, leaning with her fists on the table before she got up and took her tray with her to the elevator, Rachel following behind her without her tray, it having been already empty by the time Santana stood up. She swiped her card and pressed the button to bring her down to her quarters, scowl staying on her face until Rachel took her free hand and squeezed. She pulled Santana towards the taller girl's quarters.

"I'm sorry about that. I'm not sure why I thought being out of McKinley would cure her of her exceedingly annoying gossipy tendencies." Rachel said, sitting in Santana's desk chair while the Latina took the bed, folding her legs under her and going back to eating her eggs, bacon, and hash browns.

"It's fine, she's a bitch. And that's fine too. I just didn't want her to somehow manage to fuck things up between us. You're my friend and I care about you. But I didn't even intend to say what I did. It just kind of came out. Anyway that's what I get for helping her. Anger and fucking embarrassment."

"I actually would be interested in going on a date with you, Santana. As long as you are actually interested." Rachel said, rolling the chair forward and setting her hand on the Latina's knee.

"Wait, for reals? You want to date me?' Rachel giggled, shrugging.

"Well, I think we should go out on a date before we start 'dating' each other." She said, holding up her fingers to make the quoting gesture for the word dating.

"Yea, no, that sounds really fucking awesome. Thanks, Rach." The shorter brunette got up, moved the empty tray over to the desk and climbed up on the bed, pressing a quick, chaste kiss against Santana's lips. They lay back next to each other, prepared to talk about what they'd be doing with the rest of their days when both of their phones pinged. Santana pulled hers out, letting it unfold out to tablet size before she answered. The look on Quinn's face instantly had both of them worried.

"Q, what's up? What happened? You're worrying us."

"San, it's your mom."


	5. Chapter 5

"What happened?!"

"Coulson said something about her going after someone on the list but Hydra was there already with the technopath. They got the precog and took down her Osprey. Everyone on her team is… they're gone. Everyone b-" The wailing cry that made it's way out of Santana's throat cut the blonde off and was so, so heart wrenching. Quinn wiped away her tears as she watched Rachel comfort the other brunette.

"Hey, hey. She's alive, Santana. She's alive and stable and already on her way back here." The Latina nodded from her spot in Rachel's arms.

"I'll be there in a sec. Open the door, Rachel." The blonde said, disconnecting the call. Rachel reluctantly got up, opening the door for Quinn before sliding back in the bed to wrap her arms around Santana. The blonde sighed as she climbed onto the bed and to Santana's other side, wrapping her arms around her.

"She'll be okay, Santana. They'll be here soon and my dad will help her. He's the best doctor on base." Santana nodded shaking. She trusted Leroy. Believed he'd do everything within his power to save her Mami. She couldn't lose her. She _couldn't_. Being here and learning more and more about her father had buried a fresh sense of grief into her heart and adding her mother to that was unacceptable.

She'd just have to trust them. Trust that shield would take care of their own. In the meantime she had two of her favorite girls to ease her frantic worry and ground her.

/

"I never thought this would happen to me. I thought I'd be fine." Maribel said with a sigh, rotating the wrist of her new arm with sad eyes. It reacted perfectly, but she felt the absence of the arm she'd been born with.

"You are fine, Maribel. Leroy is growing a dermal layer to put over your arm and it'll grow to link with your skin. We're lucky you're alive at all. You know that." Colson explained with his customarily even and soothing tone.

"Your right. You always are. It's fine. Have you told them I'm awake?" She asked, referring to her daughter and her friends. She almost didn't want her to see her like this.

"Yes, though I instructed Rachel and Quinn to have her eat before she comes. She hasn't eaten or slept in two days and wasn't happy when she was told she couldn't come see you while you were unconscious. They should be here soon. I'm going to go. I still have a team checking on Quinn.

"Quinn? Did something happen when I was gone?" She asked seriously, instantly switching back into work mode.

"She told me her father called her an investment. She's been undergoing the junior agent exams. Her scores are good. Nearly too good. Her accuracy at the shooting range especially." Maribel frowned, thinking.

"Did you have Leroy run a scan? That word, investment, it means something. Have him run a check on her gene sequence, maybe." She recommended.

"You think he engineered her." Coulson said seriously, eyes narrowed in thought.

"I think it's certainly possible and something they would do. Look at her. She's everything they originally stood for. I suppose we'll see." He nodded.

"We will. When he's done with you I'll have Leroy run the scan." He nodded before turning to leave, greeting the girls as they walked in.

"Mami!" Santana called loudly, sprinting into Maribel's arms. She was careful with her right, keeping it down.

"Hey, mija. I'm okay. Shh." She said gently, rubbing her quaking back as she cried into her chest.

"You're okay? Look what they did to you. Your arm, Mami!" She said angrily. She motioned to the armor plated mechanical arm dismissively, looking devastated. Rachel and Quinn stepped closer to rub her back, all three of them hugging her a moment later.

"We're glad you're okay, Maribel. We were all worried." Quinn said with tired eyes. The mother raised her good hand to muss up Quinn's hair with a smile.

"I'm fine, Quinn. Leroy should be ready to put skin on my arm any moment. It'll grow in and it'll be like I never lost it. Thank you both for taking care of my Santi." The blonde and brunette nodded just as Rachel's father came over, motioning for them to move as he had Maribel spread her fingers. He slid the strange looking skin over her hand and up her arm until it met with the skin of her shoulder seamlessly. She flexed her fingers and arm, feeling the warm skin with her other hand. It was strange.

"Just like new. Quinn, I need a scan and blood work from you." The blonde just nodded, stepping into the machine that closed around her a few seconds later.

Santana, Rachel, and Maribel came over to look as Leroy sent the scan to Colson. The machine lifted back into the ceiling and Quinn stepped over, holding up her hand as Leroy pricked her finger, collecting her blood in a plastic agitator tube. When a bandaid was put on her finger, he put the tube in a machine, setting it to activate as the sequencing was brought up on the screen.

"Have you ever been sick before, Quinn? Not including your pregnancy and the time Santana gave you mono, obviously." Rachel asked, arms crossed under her chest in thought.

"Maybe...I don't think so. If I have I don't remember. Why? What is this about?" She asked cautiously.

"Disease resistance, cancer resistance, enhanced senses, musculature, agility, and so on. He really did." Maribel muttered to herself.

"I don't understand what's happening. Who did what?" Quinn asked.

"Your father genetically engineered you, Quinn. Sort of explains why you've always been so damn good at everything." She told her seriously. Quinn just robotically nods, beyond shocked. Of course he would have done something like that.

"What does this mean? Do you have to lock me up? I'm dangerous or something right? What if there's... I mean what if-"

"Quinn, calm down for me, sweetheart. If there was an activation switch it would have been picked up in the scan. The only other option is inlaid programming which Shield or even Santana can deal with." Rachel said, trying to calm her.

"I didn't see anything. Went back as far as Lucy. Saw no programming."

"Okay. I just don't want for him to ruin everything I'm starting to build here. I've found something I want to do. I _won't_ let him take that away." Quinn said seriously. Rachel nodded and Santana patted her shoulder, rubbing the blonde's back when she fell into her arms.

"Okay, I need to go report in. Girls, Leroy, I'll see you for dinner." Maribel said, waving with her new arm as she left.

"We should probably go back to work too. Headed to the gym." Quinn shared a look with Rachel and they followed as she walked out of the med lab and to the elevator.

"Santana, we don't think it's the best idea for you to return directly back to what you were doing before. It drains your energy, and you've been neither eating or sleeping for the last two days. We think it may be a better idea to rest, eat, and get you calorie level back up again." Rachel told her, pressing the button that would take them back to their quarters.

"I'm fine. I just want to work off all this anger. I can't sit around anymore, alright?" She said honestly, sighing as the elevator let them out on the crew quarters floor. She rolled her eyes at them as they followed her into her room, turning their backs on her as she changed into her standard body suit and boots, clipping her badge back on and slipping her phone in her pocket.

"We're just worried. The safe room is still busy and if you're tired you have less control over your power, right?"

"That's _not_ how it works, alright? And like I said I'm fine. Why don't you two go find something to do that isn't pestering me." She just needed to _do_ something. The entire ordeal with her mother being hurt by those Hydra bastards had lit a fire in her. A raging flame she couldn't extinguish. At the least she'd hit the muggle gym. Beat on a bag like it was the one that'd killed five Shield agents and nearly killed her mother.

"Please don't be hostile, Santana. We _care_ about you. It's why we were here with you while we waited for Maribel to wake up and it's why we're here now. If it was either one of us in this situation you would do the same." Rachel said, her arms crossed over her chest in frustration.

"She's right. We know that-"

"You _don't_ know what this feels like, Quinn! You _couldn't_! Neither of you understand! Just fuck off!" She yelled, that rage fueled fire coursing through her veins, just below her skin. It flowed like boiling water, the steam escaping with her breath. Rachel's pissed off eyes narrowed at her for half a second before she was yelling too.

"She's my mother too!" She yelled unintentionally, clearly having meant to say that with less volume.

"What?" Santana asked, deflating as the rage was tempered by her confusion.

"Can we all please calm down? Rachel, what do you mean?" Quinn asked.

"I just mean she feels like it. She's been the only woman in my life since forever. She doesn't see me that way, I _know_ that. But it's how I feel. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. If you must do something, stick to the regular gym, please. I need rest, I'll most likely see the both of you later." She said tiredly. She turned and left, Quinn turning back from watching her leave to glare at Santana.

"I get that you're hurt and afraid right now. I'm understanding to the best of my ability how you've been feeling. But Rachel has been _just_ as hurt and pushed all of that aside for _you_. How about you consider that the next time you think about lashing out at her like that." She said, sighing before she left to catch up with Rachel.

Santana sighed deeply, falling back onto her bed in anger at herself. How could she yell at them like that?

/

"Rach, slow down!" Quinn ran after her, slipping in her door before she could close it. Sliding it closed behind her with one hand, she wrapped the other around the petite girl to hug her to her chest, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I'm fine." Rachel repeated, falling into Quinn's strong but gentle hold with a barely repressed tremble. Fighting with Santana felt horrible. She felt too close to her now. They were friends, we're intending to be more before everything happened. That'd been put on pause and rightfully so, while they'd waited for more news on Maribel's condition.

She and Quinn had grown closer as well. They'd spent two days taking care of their friend, feeding off of each other's care for her to get through those frightening days, focusing on Santana and ignoring their own panic and pain.

"I don't think so, Rachel. You're hurt and I understand. It's just you and me right now. I know how afraid you were and I'm right here with you, you don't have to pretend." She spoke quietly, sitting down on Rachel's bed with the tiny 'wizard' in her arms, rubbing her back and breathing her in. The tears came silently, but soon enough she was sobbing, Quinn having to breath slowly to help Rachel match her rhythm.

"It's alright. Maribel is fine. I've got you, sweetheart. I'm right here." Rachel nodded into her chest, gripping at her just slightly tighter. Soon enough, she fell asleep in her arms.

Quinn laid her down under her covers, climbing in herself after a moment of cautious hesitation. As she pulled the blankets up to cover them both, she wished Santana hadn't of blown up at them. That she was here with them, comfortable, close, and feeling as safe as Quinn always did with the both of them.

As she settled on her back, looking up at the blank grey ceiling, Rachel whimpered quietly in her sleep and crept across the bed until she was comfortably cuddled into Quinn's side. Pressing a kiss to the brunette's forehead, she couldn't help but frown at the thought of her father ever yanking her away from all of this. Away from her future...away from her girls.

/

Hours later, Rachel's door chimed and the brunette grumbled quietly as she was roused from her sleep, taking a moment to find some levity in the adorable scene of Quinn's wild blonde hair, laid around her head like a lion's mane.

She stood from the bed and crossed the room, immediately noticing Santana's face on her tablet when she grabbed it. She opened the door, a scowl twisting her features as she glared at Santana, stepping out into the hall and closing the door behind her.

"What do _you_ want? Come to tell us we couldn't understand because neither of us have mothers that love us? Maybe you just came to yell again. If that's the case then why don't _you_ fuck off this time."

"What? That's not what I said at all!"

"It's what you were thinking. Why else would you have told Quinn _she_ couldn't understand? Look just go away. You can save your pity apologies for someone who doesn't know that's what they are. Quinn and I aren't some verbal punching bags for you to beat up on when you don't know how to handle your own emotions. God, the last thing _either_ of us needs is someone else who's only pretending to care about us." Rachel wrapped her arms around herself tightly, leaning back into the door and keeping a focused ear on Quinn to make sure she didn't wake. She refused to let Santana lash out at her that way again.

"Shit, I'm so sorry, Rachel. I apologize, I lashed out because I was hurting, and confused, and felt restless and I felt like the only thing that could fix it was space and time to myself. I should've known that all I needed was the two of you. I should have just listened to you and Quinn. You were only trying to help me. I'm sorry about all of that, but I'm most disgusted with myself for making you and Quinn think that I don't care about you. I care about you so…so much Rachel. Both of you. I wish I had better words to explain how I feel, or that I had better words than sorry to tell you how regretful I am for the way I acted, but I don't, so I can only show you both, if that would be okay. If that's something you both want."

"Of _course_ I want that. I just don't want this to devolve into us being antagonistic towards each other again. I don't want to feel the way you used to make me feel, Santana. You said we were pestering you. Like you couldn't get away from us fast enough. I don't like feeling like me just being around is some kind of _burden_ on you. Like you're just tolerating me, like before, just more effectively. I need for you to promise me you'll at least try to tell us how you're feeling next time. If all you needed was space and some time you have to know we would've willingly given it to you, right?"

Santana sighed, desperate to reach out and touch Rachel, to hug her tight to her chest and breathe her in. To share all of the rapidfire thoughts and emotions that she felt and yet just couldn't vocalize. She wasn't sure that level of vulnerability was quite in her reach yet. To tell someone how much of her heart they occupied was to give them the chance to break it. She'd learned that the hard way.

"I know, Rach. I know you would've. But you're no burden, Estrella. And I'm not just tolerating you. I love spending time with you, just being with you. I hate that I made you feel like that. I promise I'll let you know both how I'm feeling to the best of my ability… as much as I can manage."

"You're sure? I know all of this happening has sort of tossed us all together without us having much of a choice, but I don't want you to feel like you have to-" No longer able to resist her need to touch, carefully pulling Rachel into her arms.

"Estrella, I promise you that I'm around you, with you, because I want to be. I'm an idiot, and I acted out like one; but when I'm with you and Quinn, just the three of us? There's no place I'd rather be. I mean that. I really am sorry though. The last thing I ever want to do again in my life is make you feel like you aren't the beautiful, wonderful, woman that you are." Rachel sighed into the hug, finally relaxing enough to lean into Santana and the warmth of her touch.

"Okay…Thank you. I think I sort of really needed to hear all that."

"I swear I'll repeat it all as many times as you can stand to hear it if that's what you need, babe. Now I've just gotta apologize to Quinn, too. After she wakes up, I mean. She deserves the rest. Both of you do. Thank you so much for taking care of me Rachel. You were there when I needed you most and that means a hell of a lot to me." She pulled back enough to lay a series of innocent kisses against Rachel's forehead and cheeks, grinning down at the wide smile her favorite star was wielding.

"Anytime, Santana. For now, as far as resting goes, would you like to take a nap with us too? I'm still pretty exhausted if I'm honest. It's been a harrowing few days."

"I'd love to. We can even cuddle up on Q. She's a serious cuddle monster, you know. Just like you." Rachel just chuckled and led the way back to the bed, extending herself up to kiss those full lips she was already so addicted to.

After a few moments they separated, both of them climbing into the bed to curl around Quinn from both sides. She sighed lightly in her sleep and Rachel smiled over at Santana laying on the other side and relaxing even further. Moments later, her eyelids fell shut and she fell asleep.

/

When Quinn woke, she felt distinctly relaxed. Comfortable, safe. It didn't take her long to identify the weights to her left and right as Rachel and Santana. A smile developed into a light, giddy, laugh. Her girls had talked, things were okay again. She hoped they had also set their burgeoning romantic relationship back on track, too. They deserved to be happy. And maybe she could carve out a thin slice of happiness for herself, content herself with having two wonderful best friends. She could be the third wheel. She was good at it, was all too familiar with doing that for Santana and Rachel, even, in a strange sort of way.

All she had to remember was keep moments like this one preserved in her memory. Moments when the world and it's ferocity seemed to fade away and all that was left was her and her girls. As sudden as the realization of her desire for the three of them had been for Quinn, her feelings for them each separately were something she was comfortable with. Something she had grown to accept over time. She'd known for quite a while that she would never be with Santana or Rachel. But that was okay. _She_ was okay.

She woke from her thoughts when Santana pulled herself in closer around her, quietly sighing out a wistful 'Q'. She let the way that made her feel lull her back to sleep.

/

With a soft grin on her face, Santana snuck back into Rachel's quarters, though far less quietly this time. She was wheeling a cart full of food into the room behind her, one of the rear wheel's squeeking a little as it went. When she gazed over at the girl's she found them finally waking, however slowly, so she set the cart at the end of the bed and climbed up to press worshipful kisses to both of their heads.

"Brought food, you two." Rachel's stomach grumbled and she blushed, looking down and rubbing a stray hand over her abdomen.

"Sorry. What did you bring?" Quinn sat up slowly, yawning and stretching like a lion-maned kitten. When done, she leaned into Rachel, laying her head down against the wizard's shoulder.

"Burger night. Got you a bacon double, Q bear. This is all for you, Estrella. Dig in, and you don't need to apologize about your stomach, kay? You and that hungry belly of yours are adorable. Right, Quinn?" She reached over to hand Quinn her plate and then took her own once Rachel had moved to sit near the end of to bed to consume her burgers. As much as she was sure both she and Quinn would rather be next Rachel at the end of the bed, she caught her eyes and took a deep breath, all too ready too lay out as much of her truth as she could manage during her apology.

"It's okay, San. I know you were just feeling lost and restless and you didn't know what to do. Just please talk to us next time? That's all I ask. It's barely been a few days but I feel good about being as close as the three of us have become, and I _hate_ fighting with you." Santana nodded, pulling her favorite blonde into her arms.

"I know, babe, I'm sorry. I'm gonna be working on the talking thing a lot in the future. And I know that if there's anyone I could talk to about how crazy the whole thing made me feel it's you two. I promise I'm going to do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. I just want you to know I didn't mean anything I said, and that you're never bothering me, okay. I _love_ having you around. I can't even imagine dealing with all of this stuff without you here with me, you know. Thank you so much, Q. I mean for taking care of me while I was a mess. I don't know how I would have gotten through it without you there, too. I guess I'm trying to say that I… I really fucking care about you, and I'm sorry if anything I said or did made you feel like that wasn't true."

"Oh…" Quinn's eyes had gone wide, and she took a few deep breath's some mix of what looked like hope and confusion in her eyes.

"Baby girl? You okay?" Rachel turned to look back at Quinn, or more astutely, at her chest, and the racing heart buried within.

"Yeah, I'm…I'm great. You're welcome. Anytime. I've got your back, S."

"I know you've got me, Q." Before Quinn could think of a coherent sentence, Santana was kissing her cheek.

"Come on, babe. Eat. I got you bbq sauce for your fries and everything." Quinn just inhaled with a quiet giggle and reached for her plate and then started eating.

/

"Sir." The man with the blonde hair looked away from one of the surveillance camera's displaying the newly attained technopath mutant and the tests they were running him through.

"Report." He ordered, german accent still rich in his words to the day.

"Agent Wentz is dead. The investment is aware, and the Lopez girl has unlocked her matter manipulation abilities. We believe both of them to be close to the Berry girl, they will be difficult to retrieve when the time comes. I also believe, sir, that the investment has begun training to become a shield agent. I believe that if we let this lie for much longer, we may lose the opportunity to put your plans into action. I propose that we move now. If they – "

" _Enough_. Broaden your view of the board, Mattern. We wait. Get me Fabray."


End file.
